The Truth About the Two Bangladeshis Executed in Saudi Arabia and the Kiss Rumour
Saudi Arabia confirmed the executions but did not say the pair were married or that kissing was the offence. A viral photograph and execution video have also been traced to unrelated cases.
By Abdullahi Yusuf
A claim that Saudi Arabia executed a Bangladeshi couple for kissing inside the Grand Mosque in Makkah has spread across social media, accompanied by a photograph of a man kissing a pregnant woman near the Kaaba and graphic footage purportedly showing an execution.
Saudi Arabia did execute two Bangladeshi nationals in the Makkah region on October 14. But the story circulating online contains details that are absent from the Saudi government’s announcement, while the photograph and at least one of the videos used to support the claims have been traced to unrelated cases.
In its official statement, the Saudi Ministry of Interior said the two had been convicted of an “indecent act” inside a mosque in the Holy Capital. It did not say they were husband and wife, identify the mosque as Masjid al-Haram, or specify that the offence involved kissing. The distinction is central to the controversy: the executions are confirmed, but the viral account of what led to them is not established by the available evidence.
What Saudi Arabia announced
The Saudi Ministry of Interior, in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency on October 14, identified the two nationals as Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir and Siti Akhtar. It said they had been arrested, investigated and referred to a competent court, which found the charges proven and sentenced them to death under ta’zir. The ministry said the judgments were upheld and a royal order issued for their implementation, with the executions carried out in the Makkah region.
According to the ministry, the offence was serious and violated the sanctity of the time and place. However, the statement did not describe the precise conduct involved, give the date of the alleged incident or name the mosque. It also did not disclose the method of execution or provide the court’s full reasoning.
The official account therefore establishes that the two were executed after a court convicted them of what Saudi authorities described as an indecent act inside a mosque in Makkah. It does not establish that they were executed simply for kissing, as viral posts have claimed.
The more dramatic narrative appears to have developed as the announcement circulated online. Posts described the pair as a married or newlywed couple, with some claiming that the man kissed his wife’s forehead and others alleging that he kissed her pregnant belly. Those details do not appear in the Saudi statement.
There are also unresolved questions about their relationship. Bangladeshi media have reported that Nazrul’s father disputed the description of the woman as his son’s wife, saying the family did not know her as his spouse. The available reporting does not establish that the pair were newlyweds or on honeymoon. Describing them as a married couple executed for kissing therefore presents unverified claims as fact.
The photograph and videos do not prove the viral story
A widely circulated photograph showing a man kissing a pregnant woman’s belly near the Kaaba has been presented as an image of the Bangladeshis whose executions were announced in October. A reverse-image investigation by The Quint, however, traced it to Egyptian influencer Gehad Elbana and her husband, Ramzy Mahmoud, who shared pregnancy-related photographs at Masjid al-Haram in December 2024.
The photograph predates the executions by nearly two years and depicts a different couple. Its circulation alongside the story gave the kissing allegation an apparent visual basis, but it provides no evidence about the Bangladeshis or the offence for which they were convicted.
Another video showing a man and a woman near the Black Stone at the Kaaba was also linked online to the case. The Holy Mosques account, which publishes information about Islam’s two holy mosques, rejected the footage as evidence of the executions. Khaleej Times reported the clarification on October 20, noting that the Saudi Interior Ministry had not identified the mosque where the alleged offence occurred.
Separately, a graphic video circulated as footage of the two Bangladeshis being executed was traced by India Today to a public execution in Saudi Arabia in January 2015 involving a Myanmar woman. That footage predates the October 2026 case and does not show the executions of Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir and Siti Akhtar.
The distinction matters: evidence that the viral images and footage are unrelated does not disprove the executions. It demonstrates that those particular visuals cannot substantiate the claims being made about the case.
Bangladesh seeks answers over the executions
Beyond the misinformation, the case has raised questions about the legal process and communication between Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Consulate General in Jeddah said it had not been notified before the executions and submitted a diplomatic note seeking formal acknowledgement. Bangladeshi officials subsequently sought an explanation from Saudi Arabia about the case and the proceedings that led to the death sentences.
A confidential memorandum from the Bangladesh Consulate General, reported by The Daily Star on October 20, added further details. According to the report, a prisoner list received by the consulate on September 30 showed that Nazrul had been detained since August 2023 under Saudi Arabia’s cybercrime law, while a woman identified in the memo as Sweety Akhtar had been detained over an allegation of adultery. Both were reportedly held since 2023.
The consular records raise questions about how those allegations relate to the Saudi Interior Ministry’s public description of an “indecent act” inside a mosque. The prisoner list reportedly did not indicate that either person had been sentenced to death, and the consulate has sought further information from Saudi authorities.
The names also appear differently across the reports. Saudi Arabia identified the woman as Siti Akhtar, while Bangladeshi reporting has referred to her as Sweety Akhtar or Suety Akhter. The discrepancy has not been fully resolved in the publicly available material. The Daily Star reported on October 21 that the woman’s family was still awaiting official confirmation from the Bangladeshi government.
These are substantive unanswered questions, but the consular records should not be treated as a substitute for the Saudi court judgment. The allegation of adultery reported in the memo is not, by itself, proof that this was the offence for which the woman was executed, nor does it validate the viral claim about kissing. The full judgment and evidence presented at trial have not been made public in the sources reviewed for this report.
What ta’zir tells us
The Saudi statement says the death sentences were imposed under ta’zir, a category of punishment in Islamic jurisprudence generally associated with judicial discretion for offences that do not carry a fixed punishment in the same manner as certain hudud offences. Its application depends on the relevant legal system and judicial process.
In this case, the ministry cited the seriousness of the conduct and the sanctity of the place and circumstances, but did not provide the full legal reasoning or identify the precise act established at trial. The term ta’zir therefore does not, by itself, reveal what the two people did. A fuller official account or the court record would be needed to clarify the offence, the evidence and the reasoning behind the sentences.
The available evidence supports a narrower conclusion than the viral story. Saudi Arabia executed two Bangladeshi nationals after a court convicted them of what its Interior Ministry described as an indecent act inside a mosque in Makkah. Bangladesh says it was not notified in advance and is seeking answers, while consular records have raised further questions about the allegations and the information available before the executions.
The photograph of the pregnant woman and the graphic execution footage circulating online do not establish what happened in the case. Nor does the Saudi statement say the pair were a married couple executed for kissing inside the Grand Mosque.
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