News Desk :
A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a housewife to death and handed her husband and child jail terms for the murder of a Bangladeshi maid named Abiron Begum, reports bdnews24.com. The Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment announced the verdict delivered by Riyadh Criminal Court through a press release on Monday.
The statement said the court pronounced the verdict to the main accused in the case, housewife Ayesha Al Jizani, for intentionally committing the murder.
One of the other two accused in the case, Bassem Salem, Ayesha’s husband and Abiron’s employer, was sentenced to prison for three years and two months on charges of destroying evidence of the murder, illegally sending Abiron to work outside home and not taking steps to have her treated.
He was also handed a penalty of 50,000 Saudi Riyal.
Their child Walid Bassed Salem, the third accused in the case, was sentenced to seven months in youth correctional centre.
Although no evidence was found on Walid’s involvement in the murder, there were proof that he had engaged in various acts of non-cooperation with Abiron, according to the judge’s order.
Shariful Hasan, head of BRAC’s Migration Programme, said Abiron, a native of Khulna’s Paigacha, had travelled to Saudi Arabia through a recruiting agency in Dhaka. She was murdered on Mar 24, 2019.
Her body was returned home with assistance of the BRAC’s Migration Programme and Wage Earners’ Welfare Board on Oct 24, 2019.
Her death certificate stated “murder” in the “cause of death” section. The Human Rights Commission recommended lawful steps in the investigation of her murder, Shariful said.
The verdict has been given nearly two months after the first official hearing of the case, which took place on Dec 16 last year.
