- Saudi Arabia executes two Bangladeshi nationals without notifying Dhaka
- Bangladesh seeks court verdicts and an explanation
- Family of Nazrul Islam say they learnt of his death from the media
- An estimated 3.5 million Bangladeshis work in Saudi Arabia
SAUDI ARABIA has yet to respond to Bangladesh’s request for an explanation of why two of its citizens were executed without its diplomats being informed, Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
The two were executed on October 14. Foreign ministry spokesperson Shahidul Karim said Dhaka was still awaiting a reply.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaed Islam said earlier this week that the government had asked for copies of the court verdicts, details of the offences and an explanation of why Bangladesh’s mission had not been notified. She said Dhaka would decide its next steps once it had received the documents.
What Saudi Arabia says
Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry said a man and a woman had been executed after being convicted of committing indecent acts inside a mosque in Mecca, Saudi media reported.
They were sentenced to death under “tazir”, a category of punishment left to the judge’s discretion in Islamic law, because of the severity of the offence and the violation of the mosque’s “sanctity”, the ministry said, according to the BBC.
A family’s loss
One of those executed was Nazrul Islam, who left Bangladesh in November 2022 to work as a cleaner in Saudi Arabia, The Daily Star reported. His father, Abdul Basir, borrowed 700,000 taka (about £4,200) to send his eldest son abroad in the hope of improving the family’s finances.
His family said they learnt of his execution through media reports, after he had spent about three years and three months in detention.
They said Saudi police had arrested Nazrul and a young woman, identified as Sweety Akhtar, over allegations of an “immoral act” near a mosque, reported ANI.
Details of the charges, and whether he had legal representation or a chance to defend himself, could not be verified.
‘A gap in information-sharing’
Another minister, Humaiun Kobir, said Dhaka was examining where communication had broken down, Prothom Alo reported.
“Bangladesh has a good and deep relationship with Saudi Arabia, particularly at the level of our Prime Minister ... There was a gap in information-sharing in this incident. We have sought an explanation from Saudi Arabia to find out why this gap occurred,” he said.
Saudi Arabia is Bangladesh’s largest overseas labour market, with an estimated 3.5 million Bangladeshi workers whose remittances are vital to the economy.
Saudi Arabia has executed around 100 people this year, many of them foreigners convicted of drug offences, according to Amnesty International.
(With inputs from agencies)
