Saudi Arab

Riyadh commutes 3 young protesters’ death penalty following rights groups’ outcry

The government of Saudi Arabia has commuted to 10 years death penalties given to three young protesters for alleged offences they committed when he were minors.

One of the prisoners, Ali al-Nimr, was sentenced to death over his alleged role in anti-regime protests in the country’s Eastern Province in February 2012 when he was 17 years old. He is the nephew of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Saudi cleric who had called for reforms and was executed by the Riyadh regime in January 2016.

The Specialized Criminal Court had sentenced to death Nimr along with Dawood al-Marhoun and Abdullah al-Zaher, 17 and 15, after they were arrested, .

Saudi Arabia’s state-backed Human Rights Commission said on Sunday that Nimr’s sentence, who has served more than nine years in jail since his arrest, has been commuted, adding that the two others’ were commuted in November 2020.

In all three cases, it added, time served would apply and they are set to be freed in 2022.

“Freedom soon, God willing,” Nimr’s mother said in a Facebook post celebrating the news.

Saudi Center for International Communications (CIC) has not yet responded to a request for comment.

The commuting of sentences has been made after the Saudi public prosecutor more than five months ago ordered a review of the death penalties issued against the three young men.

The death sentences of Nimr, Marhoun, Zaher and two other juvenile offenders have not been revoked yet.

Rights groups who follow the cases closely told Reuters in January that one of the five has appealed. Eight others originally detained as minors still face charges that could lead to their execution.

Anti-death penalty charity Reprieve says Riyadh should ensure the decree is applied to all juvenile offenders.

“True change isn’t about a few high-profile cases; it means making sure no-one is ever sentenced to death for a childhood ‘crime’ again in Saudi Arabia,” said Reprieve director Maya Foa.

According to a Saudi Human Rights Commission (HRC) report in January, Saudi Arabia executed a record 185 people in 2019; the regime reduced the number by 85% in 2020.

In a statement in October, Human Rights Watch called on Saudi Arabia to stop the imminent execution of eight men charged with activities related to a wave of anti-government protests while they were under the age of 18.

The New York-based group denounced Saudi Arabia’s death penalties as the eight alleged child offenders are awaiting the death penalty.

Saudi Arabia is one of the top executioners in the world, with more than 2,000 people executed between 1985 and 2016. Suspects convicted of terrorism, homicide, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking face death penalty.

In the most stunning case of executions, on January 2, 2016, Saudi Arabia executed Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, along with 46 other people, in defiance of international calls for the release of the prominent Shia cleric.

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