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Rights groups decry beheading of eight Bangladeshis

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Staff Correspondent

Academics, jurists and rights defenders condemned the execution in public of eight Bangladeshi citizens in Saudi Arabia and resented the government’s failure to save their lives.

Eight Bangladeshi migrant workers, convicted of taking part in an armed robbery at a warehouse and killing its security guard, were publicly beheaded in Riyadh on Friday.

Jurist Shahdeen Malik termed ‘medieval’ and ‘horrifying’ the beheading of people in public and said such mode of punishment had been unknown to the civilised world for more than a century.

‘I am appalled and deeply disturbed that our government has not done much to prevent such horrific punishment. With around three million Bangladeshis working in Saudi Arabia, I do not think we are totally helpless and the government should have used that leverage to save the lives,’ he said.

‘One should be punished for their crime but the punishment must not be inhuman and barbaric,’ he said.

Dhaka University international relations professor, CR Abrar, also executive director of research group Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit, said the punishment was disproportionate and it must be condemned.

‘The workers did not sign any document of slavery. I want a clarification of the trial process and all the evidence and documents should be made public,’ he said.

He also questioned whether the trial had been fair and to what extent, whether they had received legal aid, including facilities of having interpreters and lawyers, to defend themselves or had there been any scope to appeal.

Such measures are essential to ensure security and safety of migrant Bangladeshi workers, he said.

Rights group Odhikar secretary Adilur Rahman Khan castigated the government for its failure to protect Bangladeshi nationals from such execution. ‘The government has to share the responsibility. There was no move from the government to save their lives and the foreign office even did not know it before their execution.’

‘We question the foreign office’s role in providing legal aid and interpreters for Bangladeshi migrant workers,’ he said.  The country’s economy is run by the money sent by migrant workers but it is unfortunate the government turns a blind eye when they are executed,’ he added.

‘In principle we are against death sentence as it is against humanity,’ he said declining comments on the Saudi justice system saying ‘the monarchy-run country does not meet minimum requirements of human rights.’

Rights group Ain O Salish Kendra said execution in public should be condemned by anyone who cares for humanity.

‘Although the executions were carried out in accordance with Saudi law, the beheading of the workers in public will cause immense sufferings and trauma for their families back at home,’ said the group.

The group said foreign workers often did not understand Saudi court proceedings in Arabic and they rarely find lawyers to defend them and urged the Bangladesh government to offer legal assistance to migrant workers facing trial.

Amnesty International’s deputy director for Middle East and North Africa, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, said, ‘Court proceedings in Saudi Arabia fall far short of international standards for fair trial and news of these recent multiple executions is deeply disturbing.’

Five more Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia are also in death row as a shariah court has sentenced them to death in three murder cases, informed Haroon-or-Rashid, the labour councillor at Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh.

Four of the convicts are in jail and one is absconding, he said and claimed that the embassy was trying to reach a settlement but the attempt was yet to come successful

via newagebd.com