Killer of Saudi diplomat loses bid to avoid execution

The Bangladesh Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of the man who killed Saudi diplomat Khalaf Al Ali in 2012.

Ali, 45, a second secretary at the Saudi embassy in the capital Dhaka, was shot near his residence in a diplomatic enclave on March 6 of that year.

It was the first murder of a foreign diplomat in Bangladesh.

Saiful Islam Mamun, the main perpetrator, filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against his death sentence after the court had upheld the ruling in November last year.

It also upheld the life sentences of three others convicted of the murder.

In 2013, the High Court sentenced Mamun to death and Rafiqul Islam, Mohammad Al Amin and Akbar Ali Lalu to life in prison for their part in the killing.

Yesterday, a four-member

The only way Mamun can now avoid being executed is if the president grants him clemency

bench of the top court led by Chief Justice Syed Hossain announced the decision on Mamun.

The death-row inmate now has only the possibility of presidential clemency if he is to avoid execution.

If the president rejects his plea, the government will announce the date of his execution.

“Now, there is no bar to executing the verdict against convict Saiful Islam Mamun,” Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said.

The Saudi diplomat had served for two years as head of citizens’ affairs and was living alone in his flat and would go for walks every night.

He had worked in Azerbaijan for seven years and was soon to move to Jordan.

More than two million Bangladeshis work in Saudi Arabia, an important ally of and donor to the South Asian country.

In 2011, Saudi Arabia executed eight Bangladeshi workers in public for armed robbery.

Dhaka and the UN criticised the beheadings.