Bangla apex court rejects review plea of death-row convict in murder case of Saudi embassy official

Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Sunday cleared ways for the execution of a convict who was sentenced to death for killing a Saudi embassy official here in 2012, rejecting his plea for reviewing the apex court's previous judgment.

Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain pronounced the four-member bench's decision, wrapping up the protracted trial process that began soon after the 45-year-old Saudi embassy official Khalaf Al Ali was shot dead near his residence in the posh Gulshan area on March 6, 2012.

"The Appellate Division (of the Supreme Court) has rejected convict Saiful Islam's review petition... there is now no bar for him to be hanged unless he could obtain clemency from the president," a spokesman of the attorney general's office said.

The police investigation after the incident found it to be a case of mugging where miscreants demanded money from him but his resistance led to a bloody confrontation in which Saiful shot him dead, visibly exposing to difficulties Bangladesh's crucial ties with Riyadh initially.

A fast track Dhaka court in December 2012 sentenced him and four others to death for the murder. Later, the four others were acquitted by the High Court.