Dhaka: Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed has sought amnesty from Saudi Arabia for eight Bangladeshis sentenced to death on a murder charge, Foreign Ministry and Bangabhaban presidential palace officials said here today.

In a letter to Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, the president sought clemency for them as a Saudi court handed down the death penalty for the murder of an Egyptian national last year.

A foreign ministry spokesperson said diplomatic efforts are underway to liaise with the family of the murdered person and negotiate a settlement by payment of blood money.

The Bangladesh ambassador in Riyadh has been asked to urge the community in Saudi Arabia to raise the requisite amounts for payment of the compensation as the blood money in line with the Saudi conventions.

Three other Bangladeshis were sentenced to 12 years rigorous imprisonment on the same charge. Relatives of the convicts said the Bangladeshi workers held the Egyptian on April 28,2007,when he tried to escape after stealing electric wires from the hostel where they lived.

While they were quizzing the Egyptian youth, other Egyptian workers of a factory near the hostel swooped on the Bangladeshis resulting in a clash, during which the Egyptian was killed.
Source : PTI