Nigerian online outlet falsely shares video claiming daughter mourning Bangladeshi parents executed in Saudi Arabia
A Nigerian online news outlet has published a video on X claiming to show the daughter of a Bangladeshi “couple” executed in Saudi Arabia placing soil on her parents’ graves. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found the claim to be false. The child in the video is the daughter of an expatriate worker who died in an accident in Saudi Arabia. She has no connection to the two people who were executed.
A Nigerian online news outlet has published a video on X claiming to show the daughter of a Bangladeshi “couple” executed in Saudi Arabia placing soil on her parents’ graves. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found the claim to be false. The child in the video is the daughter of an expatriate worker who died in an accident in Saudi Arabia. She has no connection to the two people who were executed.
On October 19, the verified X account of Nigerian news outlet The Yoruba Times posted the 1-minute-48-second video. It claimed to show the daughter of a Bangladeshi couple executed in Saudi Arabia placing soil on her parents’ graves. The outlet described the scene as heartbreaking, saying it brought the family’s tragedy into public view. The video shows a young girl crying and placing soil on a grave during a burial.
A reverse image search using keyframes from the video led to a video published on May 26 by a Facebook page named “Sound News 24.” The footage exactly matches the video circulating on X. The Facebook video was titled, “How can I put soil on my father’s grave? Everyone broke down in tears seeing the daughter cry.”
Another video, 3 minutes and 2 seconds long, was published on the same page that day under the title, “Remittance warrior Sajal, who died in an accident, was his father’s only son; Sajal also has an only daughter. May Allah grant Sajal a place in Jannah.” At 1 minute and 48 seconds, the video shows the same scene of the crying child seen in the footage circulating on X.
Further verification led to a report published on May 27 by the online edition of Bhorer Kagoj. According to the report, Mohammad Sajal Howlader, a resident of Sharankhola upazila in Bagerhat, was working in Saudi Arabia. He died on May 2 when a tree fell on him. His body arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on May 25, and he was buried in his birthplace, Sharankhola, on May 26.
To confirm the findings, Dismislab spoke to the report’s author, Md Shamim Hasan Sujon. He confirmed that he had filmed the video circulating on social media.
Notably, following reports that Saudi Arabia had executed two Bangladeshis, Nazrul Islam and Siti Akter, social media posts have described them as a newlywed couple. However, Nazrul’s mother, Rahima Begum, confirmed to The Business Standard that the claim was unfounded. Nazrul had been living in Saudi Arabia, but Siti was not his wife.
In other words, an old video showing the daughter of expatriate worker Sajal Howlader crying during his burial after he died in an accident in Saudi Arabia is being circulated with the false claim that it shows the daughter of a couple executed in Saudi Arabia placing soil on her parents’ graves.
