At least hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers were killed by Saudi Arabian authorities at the Yemen-Saudi border; these killings may qualify as crimes against humanity. Authorities in Saudi Arabia have arrested human rights campaigners, public intellectuals, and nonviolent dissidents. They have also condemned people to death or decades in prison for postings they made on social media. Abusive practices are nevertheless common in detention centres. These practices include lengthy arbitrary incarceration, asset confiscation without a clear legal process, and torture and other cruel treatment.
Censorship and surveillance
The Saudi Arabian Court of Appeal sentenced Yousif Al-Manasif and Ali Al-Mubaiouq, both Saudi nationals, to death in April 2024. The two were charged with offences relating to protests that they allegedly perpetrated as minors. Between April 2017 and January 2018, the two men who were then between the ages of 14 and 16 were taken into custody on charges of “betraying the homeland” and demonstrating against the government. Although the Public Prosecutor’s examination confirmed that the defendants were children at the time of the charges, Saudi Arabia has dismissed claims that they were tortured.
The two death sentences stem from a far larger problem: Saudi Arabia’s ongoing violations of people’s right to life, especially when it comes to minors. Saudi Arabia has asserted over and again that it does not execute juvenile offenders or those who commit crimes under the age of 18. This position was reiterated in a 2016 statement made by the Saudi Arabian delegation to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which said that “the death penalty is not applied to children.” Furthermore, a Royal Decree passed in Saudi Arabia in 2020 officially eliminated the death penalty for young offenders, substituting a maximum 10-year prison sentence in a juvenile detention centre.
Gender inequality and oppression
Since 2010, Saudi Arabia has carried out at least 1,562 executions, with 58 of those taking place in 2024 alone. Fifteen of these people were executed for offences they committed while under the age of eighteen. Interestingly, seven of these killings happened after the Crown Prince was appointed in 2017, while eleven of them happened after King Salman took the throne in 2015. There were six juvenile defendant executions in 2019 alone. The Crown Prince has attributed the ongoing executions to “bad laws” and erroneous judges.
But no execution may happen without his consent. Saudi officials have used torture in addition to this legal loophole to get youngsters to confess to crimes they did not commit. For example, Abdullah al-Howaiti, who was arrested when he was 14 years old, maintained his innocence for several months before he was coerced into admitting to masterminding a jewellery store heist and killing a police officer. These crimes, which are categorised as Hudud crimes and resulted in Abdullah’s execution, highlight the strategies used by the government to get youngsters to confess to Hudud crimes in order to take advantage of a legal loophole and execute them.
Religious and ethnic discrimination
Art. 37(a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Saudi Arabia has agreed to be bound, prohibits the execution of individuals for crimes committed during childhood. The Saudi authorities’ continued application of the death penalty to minors, regardless of how it is justified or made possible, is a blatant violation of this international legal ban.
By torturing juvenile defendants, Saudi Arabia has also violated the ban on the use of torture under Article 2 of the Convention against Torture and the prohibition under Article 13A of the Arab Charter. Governments with sway over Saudi Arabia, like the US, must exert pressure on the country to abide by international law and do away with the death penalty for any offences committed by minors.
Arbitrary detention and torture
The Saudi authorities are required to examine the people incarcerated on death row in order to find anyone who may have been younger than 18 at the time of the alleged offence and to free them. Furthermore, all claims of torture and mistreatment of juvenile defendants must be looked into and prosecuted.
It is unacceptable to keep torturing and executing minors without a warrant. Numerous Saudi human rights advocates and defenders are still serving lengthy prison terms for opposing political and human rights reforms or criticising the government. Saudi authorities are increasingly pursuing non-Saudi and Saudi social media users who engage in peaceful online expression, punishing them with life sentences or even the death penalty. Muhammad al-Ghamdi, 54, a retired Saudi teacher, was found guilty of multiple crimes on July 10, 2023, by the Specialised Criminal Court, Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism tribunal, based only on his peaceful expression on the internet.