Dhaka, Oct 12 (UNB) -The High Court has asked the government to form a high-powered committee to investigate the role of officials serving in the Bangladesh mission in Saudi Arabia whether they had taken effective steps to save the lives of the eight executed migrant workers.
Passing the interim order upon a public interest litigation (PIL) writ petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB), an HC division bench comprising Justice Farid Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif asked the Secretaries to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment to submit a report on compliance in eight weeks.On October 7, Saudi Arabia carried out their court order beheading in public the eight Bangladeshis for their involvement in a robbery and subsequent murder of an Egyptian security guard in Riyadh in 2007, according to press reports.
It also asked the Bangladesh Ambassador in Saudi Arabia to submit within four weeks a detailed report on the steps taken by the mission to save the lives of the executed Bangladeshis.
Despite government attorney’s objection, the High Court issued rule upon the government to explain why its ‘inaction’ to provide adequate support and legal assistance to save the lives of eight Bangladeshis beheaded on charges of robbery and murder should not be declared
illegal.
Besides, the HC asked the government to explain why direction should not be given to provide proper and legal assistance in all cases to the Bangladeshi citizens living abroad as and when required.
Opposing the petition, Deputy Attorney General Motahar Hossain Saju told the court that lawyers fought a legal battle for them at all levels. Bangladesh’s foreign and expatriates’ welfare ministries had repeatedly appealed to the Saudi authorities for clemency, the attorney said, adding that even President Zillur Rahman solicited pardon for the convicts from the Saudi king.
Advocate Manzill Murshid appeared for the HRPB.
Source: UNB
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