JAKARTA (JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - There are 229 Indonesians facing capital punishment overseas for various crimes, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Most of them are held in Malaysia, with 168 cases recorded. There are also 38 cases in Saudi Arabia and 15 in China, said the ministry's directorate for Indonesian nationals' protection and legal aid, as quoted by Antara news agency.

The directorate also revealed that 131 cases are drug-related and 77 linked to murder. Of the drug cases, 112 are in Malaysia, 15 in China, two in Laos and one each in Singapore and Vietnam.

As of September last year, the foreign ministry had handled 9,290 overseas legal cases, mostly involving migrant workers and ship crewmembers.