Migrant Jailed for 20yrs: BD mission files appeal before Saudi court

The Bangladesh mission in Jeddah yesterday filed an appeal before a Saudi court on behalf of Bangladeshi migrant worker Abul Bashar, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail for carrying illegal amphetamine pills into the Gulf country.

Aminul Islam, labour welfare counsellor at the Bangladesh Consulate General in Jeddah, confirmed the matter over phone this evening.

According to a letter of the consulate general, the appeal was filed through the jail authorities concerned.

Bashar's family in Bangladesh said that his sentence was unjust, adding that he was forced by an employee at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) in Dhaka to carry a package containing the illegal drugs while leaving Bangladesh in March this year.

Bashar, 40, from Barishal's Mehendiganj, was sentenced on September 26 in a case filed by the Saudi authorities, according to a letter of the Bangladesh Consulate General in Jeddah.