'Secret' letter sent by Bangladeshi embassy reveals details of Mecca executions of Nazrul Islam, Sweety Akhter

Amid controversy over Saudi Arabia beheading two Bangladeshi expatriates for allegedly engaging in immoral activities inside a mosque in the holy city of Mecca, Dhaka media have reported on a “secret letter” written by the Bangladesh Consulate General in Jeddah to its government back home.

According to a report that appeared in the Dhaka-based Daily Star, the letter dated October 18 stated that two Bangladeshis who were executed in Saudi Arabia on October 14 had been detained since August 2023 on separate charges. The letter identified the two people as Nazrul Islam Abdul Bashir and Sweety Akhter.

The letter added that according to the list of detainees obtained by the consulate on September 30, Nazrul was detained under Saudi Arabia's Cybercrime Act on August 1, 2023. Sweety was detained the next day on charges of adultery. Nazrul was incarcerated in the Jeddah Correctional Facility, and Sweety was incarcerated in the Jeddah Women's Prison. Both of them were working as cleaners at Al Majal Company.

However, that list did not mention any information about their death sentences. The letter also mentions that there is no precedent for Saudi Arabia to sentence a Bangladeshi to death for cybercrime and adultery. The letter states that there were three other separate cases in Mecca where a minimum of six months and a maximum of five years in prison have been imposed for crimes under the Cyber or Information Technology Act.

The letter did not mention whether the two Bangladeshis had interpreters or legal representation during the trial, the Daily Star added. No application or contact was made to the consulate seeking legal assistance from the families of the two detainees. The Saudi authorities have not informed the Bangladesh Embassy or Consulate General, either officially or unofficially, about the death sentence or its execution.

Meanwhile, there is also no certainty about whether or not the Bangladesh government will bring back the bodies of the two Bangladeshis. Shariful Hasan, head of the migration programme at BRAC, a non-governmental organisation, said that in the past, there have been precedents in Saudi Arabia where the bodies of many foreign nationals were not sent back to their countries after executions. Such incidents have also occurred in Bangladesh. "There is room for doubt because Saudi Arabia has a history of not sending the bodies of many foreign nationals back to their countries in such incidents. This has even happened with Bangladesh before," Hasan said.