RIYADH – Justice has been done, said Prince Khalid Bin Saud, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, welcoming a special tribunal decision in Dhaka to sentence five Bangladeshi nationals to death for killing a Saudi diplomat in the Bangladeshi capital. Khalaf Al-Ali, a 45-year-old official in the Saudi Embassy's consular section, was shot and killed near his home in Dhaka in early March. Tribunal Judge Mohammad Motahar Hossain handed down the verdict Sunday about two months after the trial began, chief prosecutor Rafiqul Islam said. One of the men was tried in absence, Islam said. He said the men can appeal the verdict. In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Prince Khalid said that the directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Crown Prince Salman as well as the follow-up by Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Saud Al-Faisal led to this positive outcome. “The Speedy Trial Tribunal in Dhaka sentenced five people to death today (Sunday). Four of the convicts were present when the judge gave the verdict,” said deputy commissioner of police Anisur Rahman, adding that the fifth had evaded arrest and was sentenced in absentia. Police had blamed the murder on a mugging incident gone wrong in Dhaka's posh Gulshan district. They arrested four of the muggers in July and recovered a car and the pistol they used to shoot Ali. Days after the shooting Saudi Arabia sent a team of investigators to assist Bangladeshi detectives. During the trial the men pleaded not guilty even though after their arrest in July the four men told investigators they tried to rob the diplomat as he was going for a walk on the deserted street and shot him accidentally during a scuffle. Assistant Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Detective Branch, Obaidul Haque, submitted a charge-sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court on Sep 20. On Oct 31, a Dhaka court framed charges against five accused in the murder case. They are Saiful Islam Mamun, Al Amin, Akbar Ali, Rafiqul Islam and Selim Chowdhury. Chowdhury is currently absconding. The diplomat had been living alone in a rented apartment in Gulshan for several years. Bangladesh authorities made sure the case was heard by the country's fast-track court. Saudi officials were regularly briefed about progress on the case. Saudi Arabia is a key ally of Bangladesh and a major donor. More than two million Bangladeshis – a quarter of the impoverished nation's large migrant population – work in the Kingdom.
