Dhaka, Oct 8 (bdnews24.com)— Eight Bangladeshi migrants have been beheaded in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.
The eight had been executed in public on Friday. They were sentenced to death for the alleged murder of an Egyptian man in April, 2007, an interior ministry statement said on Friday.
They are Mamun Abdul Mannan, Faruq Jamal, Sumon Miah, Mohammed Sumon, Shafiq al-Islam, Masud Shamsul Haque, Abu al-Hussain Ahmed, Mutir al-Rahman.
The men were convicted of robbing a warehouse and killing the security guard, Hussein Saeed Mohammed Abdulkhaleq, an Egyptian national. Three other men were sentenced to various prison terms, the statement in Arabic said.
Human rights group Amnesty International condemned the execution in a statement, also on Friday. "Court proceedings in Saudi Arabia fall far short of international standards for fair trial and news of these recent multiple executions is deeply disturbing," the group's Middle East and North Africa director, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, said.
"The Saudi authorities appear to have increased the number of executions in recent months, a move that puts the country at odds with the worldwide trend against the death penalty," he added.
The organisation also pointed out that majority of those executed recently in Saudi Arabia is migrant workers from poor and developing countries.
Most of the defendants have no defence lawyer, have insufficient hold of the Arabic language to follow proceedings and in many cases are not informed of the progress of legal proceedings against them.
They also have no access to influential figures or money, both of which might have secured them pardons. Saudi Arabia applies the death penalty for a wide range of offences, the statement said. Criticising the process of conviction the rights body said that it might have been only based on confessions obtained under duress or deception.
The beheadings bring the number of executions in Saudi Arabia this year to at least 58, more than double than the 2010 figures. Twenty of those executed in 2011 were foreign nationals.
At least 158 people, including 76 foreign nationals, were executed by the Saudi Arabian authorities in 2007. In 2008 some 102 people, including almost 40 foreign nationals, were executed. In 2009, at least 69 people are known to have been executed, including 19 foreign nationals and in 2010, at least 27 people were executed including six foreign nationals.
8 Bangladeshis executed in KSA | | bdnews24.com
