Saudi Arabian authorities have executed two Bangladeshi nationals on charges of sacrilege and immoral conduct, according to a confidential document dispatched to the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment in Dhaka. The internal report, sent on 18 October by the Labour Welfare Wing of the Consulate General of Bangladesh in Jeddah, revealed that the kingdom carried out the capital punishment without prior notification or subsequent formal confirmation to Bangladeshi diplomatic missions.
News of the executions first surfaced on 14 October through Saudi media outlets citing official statements from the Kingdom’s Ministry of Interior. The deceased individuals were identified as Nazrul Islam Abdul Bashir and Sweety Akhtar, both of whom worked as cleaners for a Saudi firm named Al Mazal. According to the reported statements, the pair were executed in the Makkah region on charges of desecrating the sanctity of a mosque by engaging in immoral acts inside the sacred premises in Makkah City.
The confidential correspondence underscores severe gaps in communication between Saudi law enforcement and the Bangladeshi consulate. Prior to learning of the executions through local media reports, the mission in Jeddah had actively sought information regarding Bangladeshi nationals detained across various correctional facilities in western Saudi Arabia. A list eventually supplied by the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 30 September confirmed that Nazrul and Sweety had been in custody since August 2023. However, the documentation provided by Saudi authorities omitted all details regarding their trials, sentencing, or pending capital punishments.
Detention records indicate that Nazrul was arrested on 1 August 2023 under information technology crime allegations and was held at the Jeddah Correctional Facility. Sweety was taken into custody the following day on charges of adultery and lodged at the Jeddah Women’s Prison. Consulate officials noted in their communication that there are no known precedents of Bangladeshi nationals receiving the death penalty in Saudi Arabia solely for IT-related offences or adultery.
The document also shed light on broader detention statistics affecting the Bangladeshi diaspora in the region. Records disclose that 306 Bangladeshi nationals are currently held in prisons across western Saudi Arabia on various morality-related charges. Out of these detainees, 147 individuals have already received judicial sentences ranging from a minimum of one month to a maximum of fifteen years in prison.
Neither the families of Nazrul and Sweety nor the Saudi authorities had approached the Bangladesh Consulate for legal assistance or notified the mission about the capital verdicts. In response to the unexpected executions, the consulate has sent a formal diplomatic note to the Makkah branch of the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, urgently requesting copies of the court judgments and detailed case files. A comprehensive report will be submitted to the government in Dhaka once official court documents are released by Saudi judicial authorities.
