Justice denied, say families

The relatives of the Bangladeshi workers executed in Saudi Arabia on Friday found the beheadings extremely shocking and felt that those executed were denied justice.
Some of them passed out instantly on hearing the news, report our correspondents.
“My wife Rokeya is seriously sick. She is just lying down, unable to speak or eat”, said Shamsul Haque, father of Masud Jamaluddin, one of the eight workers beheaded by the Saudi authorities for robbery and killing an Egyptian man in Riyadh in 2007.
Shamsul Haque, a landless farmer at Purbashuva village in Kalihati, Tangail, told The Daily Star over phone that he could not take his wife to any doctor yet. “I am going to talk to a doctor for medicine”, he said last night.
Haque said he had sent his son to Saudi Arabia eight years back selling off his farmland. Now he has nothing but the seven decimals of homestead, he said.
The wretched father said in the last five years, he along with the relatives of the other convicts tried out various means. They came to the Egyptian embassy, the expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry in Dhaka, and held press conferences, he said.
“I tried everything, but failed to save my son. Can eight people be executed for one?” he asked.
Shafikul Islam, another convict, hailed from Shakhipur, Tangail. His cousin Shahjahan Firoz said Shafikul's parents -- Khoaz Uddin and Raushan Ara -- stopped taking meals since they learnt the news of his execution on Friday.
Shafikul's brother Shahinur Islam staying in Dubai is almost unconscious. He will return home leaving his job there, he said.
“Though all the eight Bangladeshis have been buried in Saudi Arabia, we will submit a petition seeking return of Shafikul's body home,” Shahjahan said, reports our Tangail correspondent.
Din Islam, younger brother of Matiar Rahman of Faridpur, another convict, said they feel they have been totally denied justice. According to his earlier conversation with Matiar, he was not at all involved in the incident of stealing or killing the Egyptian man.
He also said the claim that the Bangladesh embassy in Saudi Arabia appointed lawyers for the accused is false. The embassy also did not effectively communicate with the Egyptian's family for clemency, he added.
Our Kishoreganj correspondent reports: The family and relatives of Md Sumon burst into tears as the news of his execution in Saudi Arabia reached there last evening. The victim's parents -- Asia Khatun and Abdul Hye -- repeatedly fell unconscious.