Saudi Arabia executes man for crime committed when he was 14
Saudi Arabia has executed a man for crimes he was alleged to have committed when he was just 14 years old, despite claiming to have banned the practice six years ago.
Hassan Zaki al-Faraj, 29, was executed without notice on 17 October for taking part in protests over the kingdom’s treatment of its Shia majority when he was just a child.
He was executed alongside four other men from the Eastern Province convicted in the same case – and human rights groups warn that more youth ‘offenders’ are still waiting on death row.
While in custody, Faraj was subjected to “severe acts of torture”, held in solitary confinement for long periods, and denied communication with the outside world, according to MENA Rights Group.
His execution comes despite the regime, which has spent billions trying to transform its reputation for rights abuses in recent years, scrapping the death penalty for crimes committed by minors in 2020.
Jeed Basyouni, head of MENA death penalty projects at Reprieve, a London-based human rights legal action NGO, told The Independent: “Saudi Arabia’s claim to have abolished capital punishment for childhood crimes was always a lie, but they have now abandoned all pretense.”
She urged the British government to now intervene to save the life another man at risk of execution for his alleged participation in a protest when he was a child.
Yousef al-Manasif, now 30, faces imminent execution for his alleged participation in protests about the treatment of Shia Muslims when he was just 15 years old, rights groups have warned.
He was arrested and charged in 2017 with numerous crimes including participating in riotous gatherings that affect the unity and stability of the Kingdom, joining a terrorist cell, financing terrorism, selling narcotic pills to security men, and stirring up sedition.
But Reprieve, which campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty, says he was tortured and coerced into signing a false confession and only met his state-appointed lawyer in 2022, five years after the arrest.
Manasif and Faraj were both sentenced to death in November 2022, more than two years after the law changed.
“These are nights of terror for Youssef al-Manasif and his family, thinking that he will be executed next,” said Ms Basyouni.
“After seeing what happened to Jalal al-Labbad, Abdullah al-Derazi, Ali al-Subaiti, and Hassan Zaki al-Faraj, is it any wonder that Youssef is terrified, fearing the next sunrise will be his last?”
“Youssef was 15 when Arab Spring protests swept his home town of Qatif, and by all accounts he stayed at home, only to be arrested years later for being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said.
