- Sweety Akhtar's family unaware of her Saudi death sentence.
- Executed in Mecca with another Bangladeshi for alleged acts.
- Last spoke to father, hoped for release from prison.
The family of Sweety Akhtar, a Bangladeshi woman executed in Saudi Arabia, says it was unaware of her death sentence until after it had been carried out. Sweety, who worked as a cleaner in Mecca, had reportedly spoken to her father in Bangladesh shortly before her execution on 14 October 2026.
Her family says she had given them no sign that she was facing the death penalty and had even expressed hope that she would be released from prison within two months.
This comes after Saudi Arabia has executed two Bangladeshi nationals, a man and a woman, who were accused of engaging in indecent acts inside a mosque in Mecca. However, Dhaka was reportedly not informed of either of the death sentences or the executions.
What Happened?
On 14 October 2026, Saudi Arabia executed a Bangladeshi man and a woman in the Mecca region, according to a statement from the kingdom’s Interior Ministry carried by the Saudi Press Agency.
The ministry identified them as Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir and Sweety Akhtar. According to the official account, security authorities arrested the two following an incident involving what the ministry described as indecent acts inside a mosque. An investigation followed, and the case was brought before a court.
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The court found them guilty and sentenced them to death under ta'zir, a category of punishment under Islamic law that gives judges discretion in determining the offence and its penalty.
The sentences were upheld by the judicial authority, and a royal order authorised their implementation.
However, the Saudi statement did not specify the precise acts involved, identify the mosque, or disclose when the arrests and trial took place.
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What Sweety Akhtar’s Family Said
Sweety Akter was from a village in Mirzapur upazila, Tangail. She was the daughter of Md Fazal Mia and Johura Begum and the youngest of five sisters.
According to the Bangladeshi newspaper Prothom Alo, Sweety Akter got married while she was in Class Eight, but the marriage did not last. After separating from her husband, she returned to her parents’ home with her child. Later, her family pressured her to marry again. However, when her second husband moved to Saudi Arabia, he stopped contacting her.
To support herself and secure her daughter’s future, Sweety went to Saudi Arabia three years ago. Her father, Fazal Mia, borrowed 1.5 lakh to send her abroad, where she worked as a cleaner. However, just six months after arriving, she was arrested.
Sweety had told her family that some women working with her in Saudi Arabia had illegally bought a car. She said she was arrested along with them in connection with the incident.
“She sent money home for the first five months. One day, she called and told us she had been sent to jail,” Fazal told The Daily Star.
According to her father, Sweety said she had been falsely accused and sent to prison after an argument with other female workers in Saudi Arabia. After that, her family lost contact with her for about a year.
Although Sweety was in prison, she remained in contact with her parents. She had told them not to worry if she could not call for any reason. She last spoke to her father on the evening of 13 October, a Tuesday. Two days later, her parents learned that her death sentence had been carried out.
During one of her last calls, Sweety told her family that she might be released from prison in two months.
"She called us from jail as recently as 15 days ago. Even then, she said nothing about her sentence,” her father recalled.
Her mother, Johura Begum, was heartbroken and said, “How will I survive? Bring my Sweety back to me.”
Sweety went to Saudi Arabia through an agency in March 2023 and worked as a cleaner. For about six months after arriving, she regularly spoke to her family. Then, one day, she suddenly called and told them that she was in prison.
The newspaper also reported that Sweety’s relatives believe she may have been the victim of a conspiracy involving someone in Saudi Arabia. Her family members do not believe the allegations made against her.