Latest news with #Abdullahal-Derazi
The Sun
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
UN experts urge Saudi to release child offenders facing execution
GENEVA: UN rights experts called on Saudi Arabia Wednesday to release five people sentenced to death and facing 'imminent execution' for offences committed when they were minors, including protesting the government's treatment of Shia Muslims. 'We call for the immediate release of the five individuals, to prevent any irreparable harm to their lives or personal integrity,' the eight independent United Nations experts said in a statement. They were highlighting the cases of Abdullah al-Derazi, Jalal al-Labbad, Yusuf Muhammad Mahdi al-Manasif, Jawad Abdullah Qureiris and Hassan Zaki al-Faraj, who have all been sentenced to death over terrorism-related and other offences committed when they were under 18. The men, who were each charged in connection with protesting the Saudi government's treatment of the country's Shia minority and for attending funerals of those killed by authorities, 'face imminent execution', the statement said. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, whose members were among the experts behind the statement, ruled last year the detention of the five was 'arbitrary', saying the men were being held for exercising their rights to free speech and peaceful assembly. The experts, who are mandated by the UN Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the United Nations, highlighted that they had previously communicated to the Saudi government about the cases. They said the trial had been 'tainted by ill-treatment and torture', raising allegations of forced confessions. The experts suggested that the five -- all members of the Shia minority -- had been prosecuted due to their religious affiliation. The experts said the five young men's situation was 'particularly worrying' given a sharp increase in executions in Saudi Arabia -- one of the world's most prolific users of the death penalty. They put the number of executions in the country since the start of the year at around 65. Rights group Amnesty International put it even higher, saying last week that at least 88 people had been executed in Saudi Arabia since January -- nearly double the figure during the same period last year.
Scoop
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Saudi Arabia: UN Experts Call For Immediate Release Of Child Offenders
GENEVA (30 April 2025) – A group of human rights experts today expressed dismay at the continuing prosecution and sentencing of child offenders in Saudi Arabia, where five people who reportedly committed crimes when they were under the age of 18 have each been charged for protesting against the Government's treatment of the Shia Muslim minority and for attending funerals of those killed by State authorities. 'Enforcing a death sentence in violation of a State's obligations under international law amounts to arbitrary execution and is therefore unlawful,' the experts said. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) had previously stated in its opinion concerning Abdullah al-Derazi, Jalal al-Labbad, Yusuf Muhammad Mahdi al-Manasif, Jawad Abdullah Qureiris and Hassan Zaki al-Faraj that their deprivation of liberty was arbitrary as it had no proper legal basis. The five individuals have been sentenced to death and face imminent execution. 'We call for the immediate release of the five individuals, to prevent any irreparable harm to their lives or personal integrity,' the experts said. They had previously called for all necessary interim measures to be taken to halt the executions. 'Capital punishment and life imprisonment without possibility of release for offences committed by persons under the age of 18 are explicitly and strictly prohibited by the Convention on the Rights of the Child,' they said. The Working Group found that the deprivation of liberty of these five individuals was arbitrary, as it resulted from their exercise of the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, and to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. 'We had previously communicated to the government of Saudi Arabia our concerns about the fairness of the trial, as it was tainted by ill-treatment and torture, amounting to a violation of fair trial rights,' the experts said, adding that alleged forced confessions taint the entire trial process, regardless of whether other evidence was available to support the verdict. The experts noted that the deprivation of liberty of the five individuals was likely due to their religious affiliation, as they belonged to the Shia minority. 'We are alarmed by the pattern of persecution and long history of discrimination against the Shia religious minority in Saudi Arabia,' they said. 'The situation is particularly worrying given the sharp increase in the number of executions carried out in Saudi Arabia, with some 65 executions carried out since the beginning of 2025,' the experts said.
Middle East Eye
05-02-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Saudi Arabia plans to execute Shia youths on charges UN deems 'arbitrary'
Saudi Arabia is planning to execute five young Saudi Arabian Shia citizens and one Shia businessman on charges the United Nations has deemed arbitrary and which campaigners and legal experts say are racially motivated. The five young Shia men were all minors when they participated in peaceful demonstrations in al-Qatif, in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, in 2011 and 2012. They also attended the funerals of Shia citizens killed by Saudi security forces or police for participating in demonstrations. Abdullah al-Derazi, Jalal al-Labbad, Yusuf Muhammad Mahdi al-Manasif, Jawad Abdullah Qureiris and Hassan Zaki al-Faraj were all prosecuted as terrorists, with at least one of them charged under a counter-terrorism law - branded "vague" by rights groups - introduced in 2017 by the then newly appointed Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Al-Derazi and al-Labbad have had their death sentences confirmed. Al-Manasif, Qureiris and al-Faraj are on trial once again, though Middle East Eye understands that the Saudi public prosecutor is still demanding the death penalty. The hearings are ongoing and the end point remains unknown. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The businessman, Saud al-Faraj, also participated in the demonstrations of 2011 and 2012, held to protest the kingdom's ongoing mistreatment of its Shia minority during the first wave of the so-called Arab Spring, and attended the funerals of some of those killed by the Saudi state. All six Shia Saudi Arabians have been sentenced to death and could be executed at any time. All are "tazir" cases, in which a Saudi judge can hand down their own sentence that is not based on law. UN's arbitrary verdict On 18 December, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a subsidiary of the United Nations made up of independent human rights experts, concluded that the young Shia men were being held arbitrarily – and that their death sentence was arbitrary. The UN group reached the same conclusion in the case of al-Faraj. The Working Group had communicated with Saudi authorities about the five minors, writing to them on 17 July 2023. On 13 September, the Saudi Human Rights Commission, which presents itself as being independent of the state but is in fact part of it, replied. Sources familiar with the text told Middle East Eye that it was 30 pages long, did not refute any of the claims made and was mostly comprised of explanations of the laws of Saudi Arabia. 'Together the cases are the first time where the UN has given a statement that there is systemic discrimination against Shias within the framework of the death penalty,' Falah Sayed, a human rights officer at the MENA Rights Group, told Middle East Eye. 'The UN is becoming more open on this,' Sayed said. 'It's quite groundbreaking.' Five categories are considered when determining whether a detention or charge is arbitrary. One of those is only applicable to refugees and minors. The UN Working Group found that the six Shia men facing the death penalty met the criteria for all the other categories: there was no legal basis for their arrest or the death penalty charge, the detention was the result of their exercise of freedom of expression, they did not receive a fair trial, and their incarceration was related to them belonging to a Shia minority. 'The cases are the first time where the UN has given a statement that there is systemic discrimination against Shias within the framework of the death penalty' - Falah Sayed, MENA Rights Group Duaa Dhainy, a researcher and advocacy associate at the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR), which was formed in Berlin in 2014 by exiled Saudi Arabian activists, told MEE that Saudi Arabia had already carried out 45 executions in 2025. Two of those executed were from the kingdom's Shia minority. Dhainy spoke about an ever-growing atmosphere of repression in Saudi Arabia, even as Mohammed bin Salman pushes through eye-catching measures intended to signal to the West that the kingdom is 'opening up'. A wide range of international human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW), have condemned the 'countless abuses' taking place under the crown prince, dubbed 'the man who bought the world' by HRW. In many cases involving civilians in Saudi Arabia detained by the authorities, the UN and other monitors do not know about a case until the suspect has been executed. 'The trials are secret,' Dhainy said. 'They threaten families and civil society in Saudi Arabia.' This fear means that no-one says anything, and so people are arrested, trialled, sentenced and executed without anyone knowing. 'Even the family doesn't know when the execution is,' Dhainy told MEE. Between January 2016 and February 2024, ESOHR tracked 229 executions carried out by Saudi Arabia, with sentences issued by the specialised court and resulting in mass executions. Of those executed, 93 of the targeted individuals were from al-Qatif, in the kingdom's Eastern Province. While those targeted from al-Qatif make up roughly 40 percent of the executions, the city's population accounts for less than two percent of Saudi Arabia's. Six Shia men on death row Abdullah al-Derazi was 16 when he participated in demonstrations in in al-Qatif, which were held in the wake of the Arab Spring to protest the treatment of Saudi Arabia's Shia minority. In December 2012, he attended the funeral of Ahmad Mattar, a fellow Shia citizen who had – like others at the time – been killed by Saudi police officers and security forces. On 27 August 2014, members of the Tarout Island police severely beat al-Derazi, then aged 18, before arresting him on the streets of al-Qatif. 'The trials are secret. They threaten families and civil society in Saudi Arabia... Even the family doesn't know when the execution is' - Duaa Dhainy, European Saudi Organization for Human Rights For three months, he was held and questioned in the Tarout police station before being transferred to Dammam prison run by Saudi Arabia's secret police, the Mabahith. His family did not know where he was. He could not communicate with the outside world. He was, according to the UN group's verdict, 'put in solitary confinement for about six months, during which he was beaten, burned with cigarettes and psychologically tortured.' On 20 August 2017, al-Derazi's trial began before Saudi Arabia's Specialised Criminal Court, which tries suspected terrorists and human rights activists. It is in this court that Saudi Arabians have been sentenced to death for tweets. Al-Derazi was appointed a lawyer by the state after his trial began. He told the judge that he had been tortured, but this was not investigated and in February 2018 he was sentenced to death, a sentence that was upheld in Auguest 2022. Like al-Derazi, al-Labbad, al-Manasif, Qureiris and al-Faraj were all also tortured by Saudi authorities. This torture included beatings, electrocution on all parts of the body, waterboarding, being tied to a chair and beaten until passing out, and being stomped on with military boots. All five young Shia men are currently held in Dammam prison, which is run by the Mabahith. The businessman Born in 1980, businessman Saud al-Faraj also participated in the demonstrations of 2011 and 2012 in eastern Saudi Arabia protesting the treatment of the Shia minority, who are often treated as an enemy within by the kingdom's authorities. Saudi Arabia executions: Qatif protester among dozens in imminent danger Read More » In November 2019 government authorities asked him to collaborate with them – a request he declined. Two weeks later, government forces raided one of al-Faraj's company's warehouses and confiscated construction equipment, according to the UN report. Then, on 2 December 2019, the businessman and his family returned home to find tanks in their street. All the doors of their home had been shot at and the house had been searched. Saudi authorities said they had found explosives and heavy weaponry in the house, but produced no material evidence. Al-Faraj and his family moved to one of his warehouses, but a few weeks later this was raided and the Shia businessman was brutally beaten and arrested. Since then, al-Faraj has been tortured, sexually harassed, had members of his family threatened and been forced into writing a false confession. He has been held in solitary confinement and been charged with a litany of 'terrorist' offences. He is still in Dammam prison and is still facing the death penalty.
