Three hundred and six Bangladeshis are languishing in prisons in western Saudi Arabia on varying charges as of October 18, with 147 serving sentences ranging from one month to 15 years, according to a confidential letter sent by the Bangladesh consulate in Jeddah.
Sentences ranging from six months to five years had been handed down in 33 cybercrime cases in Makkah alone, stated the consulate letter.
The mission sent the letter to the expatriates’ welfare and foreign ministries on October 18 following uproar over the execution of two Bangladeshis in the kingdom on charges of adultery and cybercrime.
The oil-rich kingdom, which employs millions of migrant workers, has executed at least 19 Bangladeshis since 2010, making Bangladeshis one of the foreign national groups affected by the kingdom’s use of the death penalty.
The kingdom executed at least 16 Bangladeshis between 2010 and 2021, according to a report titled Bloodshed and Lies: Mohammed bin Salman’s Kingdom of Executions, published by the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights in 2022.
A 2025 report by the Europe-based rights body documented the execution of at least one Bangladeshi national in Saudi Arabia.
The latest executions involved two Bangladeshis — a man and a woman — in the holy city of Makkah on October 14.
Neither the Bangladesh consulate in Jeddah nor the families of the two Bangladeshis knew anything about the death sentences and the execution by the Saudi authorities on October 14 until news of the executions appeared in newspapers the following day.
The confidential dispatch confirmed that neither the mission nor the families had been notified of the executions in advance.
The letter followed a public outcry in Bangladesh, with rights activists and civil society groups criticising the government for failing to extend adequate consular and legal protection to millions of migrant workers toiling abroad.
On October 18, foreign ministry secretary for bilateral affairs Nazrul Islam summoned Saudi ambassador to Bangladesh Abdullah bin Zafer H bin Abiyah to the state guesthouse Padma, handed him a note verbale, and sought detailed information about the executions.
According to the letter form the Bangladesh mission, the Saudi authorities provided no formal or informal notification to the consulate regarding the death sentences.
The mission said that it received no plea or communication from the families seeking legal aid for the two, although relatives of Bangladeshis detained in the kingdom for capital offences generally sought assistance either directly or through the ministries.
A Saudi interior ministry statement carried by Saudi media said that the two Bangladeshis were executed in the Makkah region under tazir — discretionary punishment — on charges of violating the sanctity of a mosque by engaging in ‘immoral acts’ inside the mosque.
The consulate said it had identified the two from a list provided by the Saudi foreign ministry in response to an earlier query regarding Bangladeshis detained in western Saudi Arabia.
The records showed that the Bangladeshi man was arrested on August 1, 2023, on cybercrime charges, while the woman was arrested the following day on charges of adultery or fornication.
The man was listed as being held at the Jeddah Reformatory, while the woman was kept at the Jeddah Women’s Prison. The records indicated that verdicts had been delivered against both, but did not specify the sentences.
The mission noted that both had worked as cleaners at Al Majal Company in Saudi Arabia.
‘There was no previous instance of a Bangladeshi national being sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for cybercrime or adultery or fornication,’ the consulate said.
The mission added that it could not engage its own interpreter to assist the accused during trial proceedings because Saudi courts relied strictly on state-appointed interpreters from an official agency, the Unified Translation Centre.
Following the executions, the consulate sent a diplomatic note to the Makkah branch of the Saudi foreign ministry seeking copies of the verdicts and case documents, adding that it would submit a full report once the records were made available.
According to the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, Saudi Arabia executed 1,243 people, including 490 foreign nationals, in 2010–2021.
The 490 foreign nationals include 164 Pakistanis, 92 Yemenis, 58 Syrians, 26 Egyptians, 25 Jordanians, 17 Nigerians, 15 Ethiopians and 14 Chadians.
International human rights organisation Amnesty International recorded at least 122 executions in 2024 and 356 in 2025 alone. Between January 1 and June 22 of 2026, Saudi Arabia carried out 96 executions.
In a statement issued on June 22, the Amnesty International reported that Saudi authorities executed 2,084 people between January 2014 and June 2026, making the kingdom one of the world’s leading executioners.