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Youngest prisoner in Saudi Arabia handed 8-year prison term

February 13, 2020 at 3:47 pm

The Prisoners of Conscience account on Twitter, which monitors the conditions of prisoners in Saudi Arabia, has reported that the criminal court in the kingdom has passed a final judgement that Murtaja Qureiris, the youngest detainee in the country, is to be jailed for eight years and prevented from travelling for another eight years.

In its tweet this morning, Prisoners of Conscience stated: “The so-called Saudi Specialized Criminal Court issues the final verdict against the child Murtaja Qureiris and it included 8 years in prison followed by 8 years of travel ban.”

The final verdict comes almost eight months after reports revealed that Saudi Arabia had cancelled the death sentence it first handed down to 18-year-old Qureiris, who was charged for allegedly participating in protests between the ages of ten and 13, and so had resorted to a heavy prison sentence.

Read: Saudi has ‘very good programmes on de-radicalisation’, says ex-UK minister

In a case related to Qureisis’, the family of the women’s rights activist Loujain Al-Hathloul has revealed that the Saudi authorities are still delaying her trial, with her brother Walid Al-Hathloul stating that nothing new resulted from the court session yesterday.

https://twitter.com/WalidAlhathloul/status/1227606359644024835

Despite having reportedly been interrogated, tortured and sexually assaulted by the authorities in prison, the court maintained that torture did not take place and that she must wait until the next session to try and prove her case.

Saudi Arabia: the new kingdom of secular morals and Israeli tactics