A photo showing a couple at the Masjid al-Haram in Saudi Arabia's Mecca is being widely shared on social media, claiming that it shows a Bangladeshi man and woman who were executed for carrying out 'indecent acts' at the holy site.
The claim: Those sharing the image, including Supreme Court lawyer Shashank Shekhar Jha, have shared it with text which says, "Saudi Arabia has EXECUTED Newlywed Bangladeshi Couple Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir and Siri Akhtar. Nazrul merely “Kissed his Pregnant Wife's Belly” inside Mecca Mosque (sic)."
While Saudi Arabia executed two Bangladeshi nationals for 'indecent acts' at the holy site, it neither mentioned the nature of the act, nor did they specify the manner of execution.
How did we find out the truth?: We set out to verify whether a newlywed Bangladeshi couple had been executed after the husband kissed his wife's pregnant belly at the Kaaba.
A relevant keyword search led us to a report by the BBC, which confirmed that a man and a woman from Bangladesh had been executed, but there were no specific details about their relationship or the nature of the act.
Bangladeshi news organisation Jago News 24 spoke to the deceased man's father, who stated that the woman was not his son's wife and that they did not know her.
When then checked the website of the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), which published all official communication from the Kingdom.
Dated 14 October 2026, a release on this website mentioned that two Bangladeshi nationals, a man and a woman, identified as "Nadhir Al Islam Abdul Basir and Siti Akhtar," were sentenced to death after the "committed an indecent act inside one of the mosques in the Holy City."
Evidently, there is no explicit mention of the act itself, the relationship between the man and the woman, or the manner of execution.
What about the photo?: A reverse image search on the viral photo led us to a Facebook post shared on 24 December 2024, which carried the photo in question.
It mentioned that it showed "blogger Jihad Al-Banna and her husband's pregnancy photoshoot (sic)" in front of the Kaaba.
Taking a cue from this, we looked for the woman's social media account, which helped us identify her as Gehad Elbana, an Egyptian influencer.
Elbana had shared images similar to the one in the viral claim on her Instagram account on 23 December 2024, announcing her pregnancy in a post which had also tagged her husband.
Her husband, Ramzy Mahmoud, had also shared a video of the announcement on his Instagram account, which showed the visuals of him kissing Elbana's belly.
Conclusion: An old photo of a couple is being falsely linked to the recent execution of a Bangladeshi man and woman in Saudi Arabia.
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