Families Still Don't Know Where Bodies of Two Bangladeshis Executed in Saudi Arabia Are; Riyadh Has Not Replied

The families of two Bangladeshis executed in Saudi Arabia still do not know where their bodies are being kept. Saudi authorities have not yet responded to Bangladesh's diplomatic request for information on the matter.

Bangladesh has still received no answer from the Saudi authorities to the diplomatic note seeking details of the executions, a foreign ministry source said on Sunday.

Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir and Sweety Akter were executed on 14 October in Saudi Arabia's Makkah region.

Nazrul's family says the local union parishad chairman collected some documents from them. But they have learned nothing about where Nazrul's body is or whether it will be brought back to the country.

Sweety's father has appealed to the government to bring back his daughter's body, or at least her remains, to the country.

Earlier, the Bangladesh Consulate General in Jeddah said the Saudi authorities had informed them of nothing about the executions. The mission learned of the matter from a Saudi interior ministry statement published by the Saudi Press Agency.

Bangladesh later sent a diplomatic note seeking details about the charges, the court verdict, legal representation and what happened to the bodies. That note has still not been answered.

According to the consulate's earlier correspondence, the two Bangladeshis had been detained since August 2023. But the list of Bangladeshi prisoners the consulate received on 30 September contained no information about their punishment.

The families of Nazrul and Sweety had earlier said they knew nothing about the possibility that the two could face the death penalty.

Under Article 37 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, when a foreign national dies and the relevant information is available to the authorities, the consulate concerned must be informed without delay.

Questions have also been raised over the Bangladesh mission's role in the two cases. Human rights organisations have called for an independent investigation into the executions and a review of the mission's role. They have also questioned whether the two Bangladeshis received adequate legal and consular support.

On 28 October, a writ petition was filed in the High Court seeking disclosure of the documents related to the two Bangladeshis' arrest, trial, sentence and execution, and details of what consular support the Bangladeshi authorities had provided them.