Saudi Woman Sentenced To Death For Murder Of Bangladesh Maid

Saudi woman gets death sentence: Ayesha Al Jizani, a Saudi woman, was sentenced to death on Sunday for the murder of her Bangladeshi maid, Abiron Begum in March 2019. According to a Bangladeshi government official, the incident took place two years after Begum went to the Gulf state to search for better paid work. A criminal court convicted Jizani.

The case was a rare example of an employer being found guilty of abusing a migrant worker. Shakirul Islam, an activist working for migrant rights in Bangladesh, was quoted saying to Reuters, “I have been working in the migration field for several years and I have never heard of such a verdict.”

In Unusual Migrant Abuse Case, Saudi Woman Gets Death Sentence

Jizani’s husband was also reportedly jailed for three years for not helping Begum get medical treatment and for illegally making her work outside the family home, officials said.

Begum’s brother in law, Ayub Ali said, “(Begum) wanted to go abroad to earn more money so that she could pay for her aged parents, they started torturing her two weeks after she left.”

"She would call us and cry … we begged the brokers here to bring her back, but no one listened to us," he added.

Bangladesh is one of the world’s top exporters of labourers and heavily depends on the remittances sent home to relatives. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Saudi Arabia was one of the top destinations for migrant jobseekers from Bangladesh.