The Saudi Ministry of Interior identified the two as Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir and Siti Akhtar, a woman, saying they “committed an act of sexual immorality inside a mosque in the Holy City of Makkah.” The exact nature of the act has not been independently verified by Saudi authorities.
A competent court found the couple guilty of the charges brought against them and sentenced them to death as a discretionary punishment, known as Ta’zir, citing the gravity and seriousness of their actions in violating the sanctity of both the time and the place.
The judgment became final after being upheld by the relevant judicial authority, and a royal order was issued to enforce the sentence in accordance with Islamic law, the ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. The statement did not specify how long the judicial review process took or at what level the appeal was heard.
Saudi authorities had not formally notified Bangladesh before carrying out the executions. The consulate learned of the matter through media reports and then sought an official explanation from the Saudi foreign ministry.
“The consulate was not notified by the ministry beforehand,” an official of the diplomatic mission told Dhaka-based The Daily Star. “In this regard, we have submitted a note verbale to the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requesting formal acknowledgement of the matter.”
Three days after the executions, Bangladesh’s consulate in Jeddah was still awaiting an official Saudi response in a bid to verify the identities and nationality of the two people executed. An official of the Bangladesh Consulate General in Jeddah said it had yet to receive a formal response from the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The incident raises questions about consular notification under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, to which both countries are parties. Article 37(a) requires authorities of a receiving state to inform the consular post without delay when a foreign national dies. Article 36(1)(b) requires authorities to inform detained foreign nationals without delay of their right to consular notification. Bangladesh ratified the convention in 1978, and Saudi Arabia acceded to it in 1988.
It remains unclear whether either individual knew of these rights or requested consular assistance. No lawyer for either of them has been publicly named in any official statement from Riyadh.
It is not confirmed if the couple was married to each other, though reports circulating in Bangladesh describe them as newlyweds who had traveled to Mecca for religious purposes. Those reports have not been confirmed by Saudi or Bangladeshi officials.
The court sentenced them to death under ta’zir, a category of discretionary punishment under Sharia law. The judge reportedly considered the violation of the mosque’s sanctity and the circumstances of the alleged offense when delivering the verdict.
The Saudi Ministry of Interior reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining security, upholding justice, and implementing the provisions of Islamic Shariah against anyone who violates the sanctity of mosques and warned anyone “who may contemplate committing such acts that they will face the punishments prescribed by Islamic law.”
Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir and Siti Akhtar were executed on October 14. Their families, their government, and their consulate appear to have learned of the executions only after they were carried out, according to Bangladeshi diplomatic sources and media reports from Dhaka.
The Bangladesh Consulate in Jeddah wrote to the Saudi foreign ministry on Thursday, seeking details of the executions, according to sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka and the consulate. No formal Saudi response had been issued at the time of reporting.
The bodies of the two Bangladeshi nationals have been returned to Bangladesh, according to the source material, for traditional burial rites. Saudi Arabia’s execution of Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir and Siti Akhtar now sits at the center of an unresolved diplomatic dispute between Riyadh and Dhaka, one that Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain described as a matter requiring urgent clarification.
