Around 7,500 Bangladeshis are currently imprisoned in different parts of Saudi Arabia, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaed Islam said on Friday.

“More or less 7,500 Bangladeshis are in different jails in Saudi Arabia on various charges. We are checking whether the names of the two Bangladeshis who were executed recently are on the list,” she told the media.

The state minister was speaking after the body of Bangladeshi worker Md Shahed Ahmed Ashik, who was killed in a Houthi missile attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was handed over to his family at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.

“We have not received detailed information about the executions. We have officially requested the Saudi authorities to provide copies of the verdicts. We will be able to learn more once we receive them,” she said.

Shama Obaed said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not work alone to resolve issues concerning expatriate Bangladeshis, as the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment and the Ministry of Home Affairs are also involved in dealing with legal matters.

“When we learn that any Bangladeshi has been sentenced in Saudi Arabia, we communicate with the Saudi authorities through diplomatic channels to seek a reduction in the sentence or explore whether there is any process for a pardon,” she said.

The state minister said the government does its best to protect Bangladeshi nationals while respecting the judicial systems of other countries.

“We will definitely not interfere in the judicial system of another country, but the government does its best to save its nationals whenever it learns of such cases,” she said.

“The problem is that we were not informed of the sentences imposed on the two Bangladeshis who were executed,” Shama Obaed added.

Two Bangladeshi nationals – Nazrul Islam Abdul Bashir and Sweety Akter – were recently executed in Saudi Arabia.

They had been detained in the country since August 2023 on separate charges, according to a confidential document sent from the Labour Welfare Wing of the Bangladesh Consulate General in Jeddah to the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment on October 18.

According to the document, the Saudi authorities did not inform the Bangladesh Embassy or the consulate before the executions, nor did they formally notify them afterwards about the executions.

The information about the execution emerged from Saudi media reports citing a statement issued by the Saudi Ministry of Interior on October 14.

According to the Saudi ministry’s statement, as reported in local media, the executions took place in the Makkah region. They were accused of committing “indecent acts” inside a mosque in the holy city of Makkah.