Envoy in KSA asked to report his steps
The High Court yesterday asked Bangladesh ambassador to Saudi Arabia to submit a report to it in four weeks on the steps his office took to save the lives of eight Bangladeshi nationals beheaded in Riyadh on October 7.
The directive came a day after a rights organisation filed a writ petition challenging the 'inaction or failure' of the government officials concerned to save the lives of eight Bangladeshis who were working in a road construction project in Riyadh.
The HC also asked the ministries of foreign and labour affairs to investigate the role of Bangladesh embassy officials in saving the workers' lives and submit the investigation reports in eight weeks.
The court issued a rule upon the embassy officials to explain in four weeks why their 'inaction or failure' to save the lives of the Bangladeshi citizens should not be declared illegal.
In the rule, it asked the officials to explain why they should not be directed to provide adequate support and legal assistance to all Bangladeshi citizens abroad in future, if necessary.
The HC bench of Justice Farid Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif came up with the order and rule following the writ petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh.
Deputy Attorney General Motahar Hossain Saju opposed the writ petition, saying that the government officials concerned had taken necessary steps to save the lives of Bangladeshi citizens in Saudi Arabia.
Despite Bangladesh's repeated pleas for clemency, Saudi authorities executed the eight Bangladeshi workers for their involvement in a robbery and murder of an Egyptian security guard in Riyadh in 2007.
Meanwhile, Caram Asia, a regional rights body for migrants, yesterday demanded that Saudi Arabia temporarily stops executing death penalties and review cases of the prisoners currently under death sentence.
It made the call in a statement to the Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud and Minister of the Interior Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud.
Comments