LAGOS OCTOBER 22ND (NEWSRANGERS)-Saudi Arabia executed two Bangladeshi citizens it had accused of an “indecent act” inside a mosque in Mecca.
The case has caused public anger in Bangladesh and has left its government scrambling for answers because it only learnt about the executions after the fact.
According to the Saudi interior ministry, a man and woman were put to death on Oct 14 in the Mecca region for violating the “sanctity” of the mosque.
The ministry said they had been sentenced under “ta’zir”, a discretionary punishment under Islamic law rather than a fixed penalty for a criminal act. It said the offence had been severe, but did not give details.
Some Saudi media reports said they had been accused of kissing and a senior Bangladeshi official told The Telegraph they had been charged with “adultery”.
The kingdom’s account is disputed by both the victims’ families.
In September, Saudi authorities shared a list of around 2,500 prisoners with the Bangladeshi consulate general in Jeddah, The Telegraph understands.
The list gave no indication that either had been sentenced to death.
Bangladesh has asked Saudi Arabia for a full account of the case and legal proceedings, but it has yet to respond.
Divorcee of 24 executed
The Telegraph can reveal that the woman was Suety Akter, 24, a divorcee from the village of Mirzapur in Bangladesh’s Tangail district. She travelled to Saudi Arabia in 2023 and had worked as a cleaner for the Al Majal Al Arabi Group in Mecca.
She was detained in August 2023 but did not tell her family until a year later, saying at first that she had been held after a physical brawl.
“The family later learned that she had been arrested in connection with a relationship with a young man there,” a local police official in her hometown told The Telegraph.
She last spoke to her relatives on Oct 13, the day before she was killed.
“She told them she would return home within the next two and a half months. She was unaware of her execution,” the official said.
The man was named as Nazrul Islam, 22, from Birampur village in Brahmanbaria district, the eldest of four siblings. He was arrested on the same day as Akter.
Nazrul Islam had been detained for more than three years
He had travelled to Saudi Arabia in November 2022 and also worked as a cleaner in Mecca.
His family told The Telegraph that he had called home six months later to say he had been arrested and framed, without giving details.
“I heard about my cousin’s execution through media reports. We used to speak with him over the phone every Sunday. Unfortunately, we were not informed about the execution beforehand,” his cousin Muhammad Moinuddin Bhuiyan said.
He added: “We don’t know anything about adultery or any such offence. Neither Nazrul nor the Saudi government informed us about it. We want justice.”
The family is demanding the return of his body and an investigation.
Another cousin, Mostakim Bhuiyan, said Islam had been executed “without informing them beforehand or allowing him to defend himself”.
He said: “We are now hearing that he had committed an ‘indecent act’, but they don’t bother to explain it further.”
The case has placed Dhaka in a delicate position.
More than 3.5 million Bangladeshis work in Saudi Arabia, mostly in low-paid jobs, and their remittances are vital to the economy.
The oil-rich kingdom is Bangladesh’s largest overseas labour market, and Dhaka has signalled it wants to join the Mecca Pact, a security grouping of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan.
Although he demanded answers, Humaiun Kobir, a junior Bangladeshi minister, appeared to accept the Saudi verdict.
“The sanctity of the House of Allah is sacred, and people travel to Mecca with pure intentions,” he said. “If what we have heard and learned about this incident is true, it is naturally extremely unfortunate and in no way acceptable.”
Saudi Arabia has been heavily criticised internationally for its capital punishment.
Amnesty International said the kingdom had executed a record number of people last year and had put about 100 to death this year. It said many were foreigners convicted of drug offences at trials the group called grossly unfair, with defendants often denied lawyers, interpreters or adequate consular help.
Death sentences for discretionary “ta’zir” offences accounted for at least 47.5 per cent of executions between January 2014 and June 2025, Amnesty found.
The latest executions are likely to sharpen questions about the human rights record of a state that Western governments, Britain’s among them, are drawing ever closer to.
Even as rights groups catalogue the kingdom’s record number of executions, the jailing of critics and the abuse of migrant workers, Britain confirmed that it was deepening its military support for Riyadh in its war with Yemen’s Houthis.
On Tuesday, The Ministry of Defence said the RAF would send Typhoon fighter jets to help defend Saudi Arabia against Houthi drone and missile attacks, an expansion of a British role that already includes a refuelling aircraft, air defences and personnel pledged in September.
The jets will fly defensive counter-air missions only, not offensive strikes, to protect Saudi cities and critical infrastructure.
Britain will also provide an A400M transport aircraft and military advisers.
The Telegraph
For advertisement placement, events coverage, media consultancy, placement of publications and further enquiries please WhatsApp 2348023773039 or email: labakevwe@yahoo.com
