Saudi Arabia executes two Bangladeshis for indecent acts in Mecca mosque
Dhaka says it was never notified and family disputes the woman's identity, kingdom that buys football clubs and art auctions still offers no legal process worth the name
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Source: Islamic Landmarks
zerohedge.com
Saudi Arabia executed two Bangladeshi nationals, a man and a woman, in Mecca last week after convicting them of 'indecent acts' inside a mosque, according to local media. Bangladesh's foreign minister, Humaiun Kobir, told reporters on Monday that Dhaka was given no advance notice of the executions and is now seeking an explanation from 'our friendly bilateral partner.'
The gaps are the story. Riyadh has not disclosed what the alleged acts were, nor whether the two had legal representation. The two appeared on a list of prisoners Saudi Arabia had previously shared with Bangladesh — a list that indicated no plan to execute them. The Bangladeshi foreign ministry says it is still waiting for a copy of the full verdict and the circumstances that led to the executions. The family of the executed woman maintains that the person killed was not who Saudi authorities claimed.
The executions sit in a broader pattern. Last week Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of Anojan Sivarasa, a 27-year-old Sri Lankan convicted of insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad — but he remains imprisoned, serving five years plus a fine of three million riyals. Rights reporting describes a surge of decades-long prison terms for social media posts, prosecuted under religious-law, cybercrime and counterterror statutes in the name of 'public morals.' At least 175 people have been executed in the kingdom this year, the majority of them foreign nationals.
The demographic detail matters: the people beheaded for offences like these are overwhelmingly migrant workers, whose governments discover the sentences afterwards and whose families sometimes cannot even confirm the identity of the dead. Riyadh's international profile, meanwhile, has never been higher — sovereign wealth investments in Western sports and art, seats at the tables of major powers.
A government that can afford the Louvre's satellite and Premier League football clubs could afford a published verdict. It does not.