The undersigned organizations express their grave fear for the lives of the accused minors, in particular the two young men, Yousif Al-Manasif and Ali Al-Mubaiouq, who are at imminent risk of execution in Saudi Arabia following reports by the Specialized Criminal Court. The U. S. Appeals Commission (SCCA) has upheld their death sentences. As a result, their cases were referred to the Supreme Court for a final ruling. About a year ago, the Supreme Court upheld the final death sentence imposed on Ali al-Subaiti. In addition, the final death penalty sentences were passed by the Supreme Court about a year ago against Abdullah Al-Derazi and Jalal Al-Labad. The Supreme Court is the last judicial step before execution, which takes a position after the king’s signature.
Given practices beyond Saudi Arabia, it is difficult to wait for the exact time between the case being referred to the Supreme Court, its approval and its execution. The above cases imply that the lives of juveniles sentenced to a “discretionary sentence” (taazir) are at imminent risk of execution.
As it is expected that there will be cases of minors who have been identified, with the latest developments the scenario of minors who have been followed through organizations for having been sentenced to death is presented:
The Saudi Arabian government subjected the youths to human rights violations during their detention, adding to enforced disappearances, months of solitary confinement, and a diverse bureaucracy of torture. The threat of execution is exacerbated by the fact that the Saudi judiciary is not independent and therefore unable to protect Americans from arbitrary death sentences. People accused of acts similar to their non-violent activism are regularly convicted on the basis of the anti-terrorism law and confessions obtained under torture are used as the only evidence for their conviction.
The undersigned organizations point out that the adoption of new death sentences contrary to those sentenced for acts committed when they were minors contradicts Saudi Arabia’s narrative that it has ended death sentences for minors. For example, in ruling on the promulgation of Royal Decree No. 46274, the Saudi Human Rights Commission indicated that the death penalty against those Americans and minors would be overturned. Saudi Arabia has reiterated this announcement several times before the Human Rights Council and other foreign human rights forums. This is in flagrant violation of its external obligations, given that Saudi Arabia is a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which obviously prohibits the death penalty against minors.
Despite this announcement, Saudi Arabia executed juvenile Mustafa Al-Darwish in June 2021 and continued to issue and approve death sentences. Instead of halting executions, the government has resorted to cryptic and baseless responses to UN special rapporteurs’ communications on their cases.
Since the beginning of 2024, Saudi Arabia has executed 47 people. 12 of those sentences were handed down through the Specialized Criminal Court. The Interior Ministry specified the nature of the sentences imposed on them, but they are most likely Taazir. Prayers.
The undersigned organizations state that the adoption of new death sentences against minors demonstrates the veracity of Saudi Arabia’s successive promises regarding the death penalty in general and the death penalty against minors in particular. It is highly unlikely that reforms or adjustments will be envisaged without an immediate response. End arbitrary death sentences, adding opposition to minors for fees that are not considered the most serious and after unfair trials.