Two Bangladeshis Executed in Saudi Arabia: Confidential Document Raises Many Questions

The two Bangladeshi nationals executed in Saudi Arabia, Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir and Sweety Akter, had been arrested in August 2023 on separate charges, according to a confidential document of the Bangladesh Consulate General in Jeddah. The document contains information about the execution process and the trial that has already sparked widespread discussion in Bangladesh.

The document, dated 18 October, was sent to the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment. It states that the death sentences of the two Bangladeshis were carried out in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, on 14 October.

According to a prisoner list dated 30 September that reached the consulate, Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir was arrested on 1 August 2023 under Saudi Arabia's cybercrime law. The following day, 2 August, Sweety Akter was detained on a charge of adultery.

According to the document, Nazrul was held at a correctional centre in Jeddah and Sweety at the women's prison in Jeddah. Both worked as cleaners for a company named ‘Al Mazal’ — meaning two people who had gone abroad to work as ordinary labourers ended their lives on the gallows, which makes the incident all the more tragic.

Yet the prisoner list mentioned no death sentence against either of them. The list gave brief descriptions of the offences of 97 prisoners, but in the cases of Nazrul and Sweety the offence column was left blank. This is where the first big question arises: the list in the consulate's hands carried no hint of the punishment at all.

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Interior said Nazrul and Sweety had been convicted of involvement in ‘immoral activities’ inside a mosque in Makkah, and that their death sentences were carried out for that offence.

However, the consulate document does not clarify whether the charges mentioned at the time of their arrest had any connection with the reason for the death sentence. This lack of clarity between the arrest charges and the cause of the sentence has given rise to the biggest debate surrounding the incident.

The consulate said it knows of no precedent of a Bangladeshi citizen being executed in Saudi Arabia on a cybercrime-law or adultery charge. In other words, according to the records, the consulate considers an execution on such charges to be without precedent.

Questions also remain over the trial process. The document contains no information on whether interpreters or lawyers were arranged for Nazrul and Sweety during their trial. It only states that interpreter assistance is provided in Saudi courts, but defendants cannot choose interpreters of their own liking. The document also notes that no application or contact was made to the consulate from the two prisoners' families seeking legal assistance.

More worryingly, the Saudi authorities informed neither the Bangladesh Embassy nor the Bangladesh Consulate General in Jeddah — formally or informally — about Nazrul and Sweety's death sentences or their execution. This raises the question of whether Bangladesh had any opportunity at all to intervene diplomatically before the sentences were carried out.

Over the incident, the consulate has sent a diplomatic letter to the Makkah branch of the Saudi Foreign Ministry, seeking a copy of the court verdict and detailed information about the trial process. The consulate said a further report on the matter will be given after the court's verdict is received.

The document also presents a larger picture of Bangladeshi prisoners in Saudi Arabia's western region. At present, 306 Bangladeshis are imprisoned in that region, of whom 147 are serving jail terms ranging from one month to 15 years. The document also contains information on three separate cybercrime cases, in which sentences of six months to five years were handed down.

As the full verdict and the detailed trial information have not yet reached the consulate, answers to several questions about the charges, the trial and the execution remain unavailable. Questions have also been raised about why the Bangladesh consulate was not informed of the matter, and the incident has given rise to criticism over the legal protection and rights of foreigners.

Bangladeshi lawyer Khan Khaled Adnan said the execution of these two workers has put the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh to a difficult test. At the same time, questions have been raised about how far the Saudi authorities ensure detainees' rights — especially the right to consular assistance and the opportunity to defend oneself legally. Everyone is now waiting for the copy of the court verdict; only when it arrives will the real picture of the trial process be known and the basis for the next diplomatic steps be formed.