Bangladesh executes man over 2012 murder of Saudi diplomat

A Bangladeshi man was hanged in a jail outside Dhaka over the murder of a Saudi diplomat in 2012, an official said Monday.

Khalaf al-Ali, 45, who worked in the consular section of the Saudi Arabian embassy, was shot in the capital's diplomatic zone in front of his rented apartment. He later died in hospital.

Police at that time said 30-year-old Saiful Islam, who was hanged on Sunday, led the gang who tried to rob the diplomat.

"He was executed in accordance with a court order," prison official Shahjahan Ahmed told AFP.

The Supreme Court in August upheld Islam's death sentence. He was originally sentenced to death in 2013 by a trial court which described him as the main perpetrator of the killing.

More than two million Bangladeshis are working in Saudi Arabia, which is a key ally of the South Asian country and a major donor.

Bangladesh regularly executes death row convicts despite criticism from human rights groups.

In recent years at least five top Islamist leaders, who have been convicted of war crimes, and nearly a dozen Islamist extremists were executed -- all by hanging -- in high security prisons.