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Saudi Arabia executed a Bangladeshi man and woman in the Mecca region on October 14, after a court found them guilty of an indecent act inside a mosque in the holy city. The Saudi Interior Ministry says the court sentenced them to death under ta’zir, a form of punishment in Islamic law that leaves the offence and the sentence to the judge.

The ministry did not say what the act was, which mosque it took place in, or when the two were arrested. Bangladesh says Saudi Arabia did not tell it beforehand and has asked for details of the case.

Here is what Saudi Arabia said, what the law is, and what is still not known.

Gulf News says the verdicts became final after the relevant judicial authority upheld them, and that a royal order approved the executions. The ministry said the government will enforce Islamic law against anyone who violates the sanctity of mosques, and warned that others who commit similar acts will be punished. Khaleej Times adds that the statement also referred to offences against the honour of others.

The ministry named no statute. It said only that the sentences were passed under ta’zir, which it described as a discretionary punishment under Islamic law.

Islamic law as applied in Saudi Arabia has three groups of offences. Hadd offences carry fixed punishments. Qisas covers retribution, such as for killing. Ta’zir covers the rest, where neither the offence nor the penalty is set in advance, according to MENA Rights Group and other rights bodies. The judge decides both.

Saudi Arabia has no codified penal code, MENA Rights Group says. Judges use their reading of Islamic law to decide what is a crime and how to punish it. Human Rights Watch noted in a 2008 report that most criminal cases involve ta’zir offences and that judges are not bound by earlier rulings.

Saudi Arabia said in February 2021 that it was drafting a Penal Code for Discretionary Sentences to write down ta’zir crimes. Amnesty International, which studied a leaked draft, said it would not limit the use of the death penalty. The sources checked do not confirm whether the code has come into force.

The BBC cites Amnesty International as saying Saudi Arabia has executed around 100 people this year, many of them foreigners convicted of drug offences.

Bangladesh’s consulate general in Jeddah said it was not informed about the executions beforehand, The Daily Star reports. Prothom Alo reports that Bangladesh learned of the executions from media reports, and that several foreign ministry officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Saudi authorities would not normally arrest two Bangladeshis and execute them so quickly.

Bangladesh has now sent a note verbale, a formal diplomatic message, to the Saudi foreign ministry asking for formal acknowledgement.

Shama Obaed Islam, Bangladesh’s state minister for foreign affairs, said the government has asked Saudi Arabia about the offences and the legal process, the BBC reports. She said Bangladesh will decide its next steps, including bringing the bodies home, once it has that information.

The Daily Star reports that the two were on a list of prisoners Saudi Arabia shared with Bangladesh after a request from the Jeddah consulate. The list did not show that they had been sentenced to death. Dhaka Tribune cites private sources as saying the trial had been underway in a Jeddah court for several months. It says it is unclear whether the two asked for their consulate to be told, and that nothing is known about whether they had a lawyer or could appeal. Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia are both parties to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

More than three million Bangladeshis live and work in Saudi Arabia, mostly in low-paid jobs, and news of the executions has caused concern in Bangladesh, the BBC says.

The Saudi statement, as reported, does not say what the act was, does not mention the name of the mosque or give the dates of the arrests and trial, The Daily Star reports. It does not say whether the two had a lawyer or could appeal. It is also not known if the two were married. Bangladesh is waiting for Saudi Arabia to reply to its request for details.