Amnesty: 7 Saudi juvenile offenders facing imminent execution

Seven Saudi offenders are facing imminent execution, Amnesty International announced on Friday, noting that this might happen despite the Kingdom having committed to ending the death penalty against juveniles.

According to Amnesty, all seven offenders: “Were children at the time of their alleged crimes. All were denied legal representation throughout their pre-trial detention.”

The London-based rights group shared: “Six of the group were sentenced on terrorism-related charges, the seventh for armed robbery and murder. All were subjected to unfair trials marred by the use of torture-tainted confessions and their death sentences were upheld by an appeals court between March 2022 and March this year.”

Amnesty stated that Yousef Al-Manasif, aged between 15 and 18 at the time of his alleged offence: “Was sentenced to death by the country’s notorious Specialised Criminal Court last November.”

Amnesty claimed that his charge included: “Seeking to disrupt the social fabric and national cohesion, and participating and inciting sit-ins and protests that disrupt the state’s cohesion and security.”

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His family said they were not allowed to see nor visit Yousef until more than six months after his arrest, during which time he was reportedly held in solitary confinement. An appeals court upheld his sentence in March.

Another defendant, Abdullah Al-Darazi, who was 17 at the time of his offence, told the judge: “I demand an independent medical evaluation to prove the torture that I have been subjected to. The records of the Dammam investigations unit hospital prove that I continue to be treated as a result of beatings on my ears during my interrogation, and I continue to call for a medical report on this.”

The court failed to conduct an independent medical investigation or investigate his torture allegations, and instead, last August, an appeals court upheld his death sentence.

On Thursday, Amnesty urged French President Emmanuel Macron, who was hosting the Saudi crown prince in Paris, to pressure him to spare the seven people facing execution.

Speaking to Agence France-Presse, Amnesty’s Secretary-General Agnes Callamard expressed: “Amnesty International will do everything to ask that the French president, who seems to enjoy the company of the prince, makes an effort and that he asks that these young people are never going be executed.”

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