They were convicted of minor crimes as teens and now face beheading and 'crucifixion' in Saudi Arabia.
When Ali al-Nimr was 17, he says he was suddenly rammed by a Saudi Arabian government vehicle while riding his motorcycle through the eastern district of Qatif.Al-Nimr was taken to a local police station, where he was beaten so badly he had to be transferred to a hospital, his lawyer said.
Then, in May 2014, al-Nimr was sentenced to death by"crucifixion," contrary to Article 37 of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that no individual should be sentenced to death for crimes committed under the age of 18. Saudi Arabia is one of the 196 countries that has ratified the CRC.
"In prison, Saudi police tortured Abdullah -- including beating him with wire iron rods -- and forced him to sign a paper that he had not read, without allowing him to speak to his family or a lawyer," Reprieve wrote. Inhumane treatment of three young men in government custody, as reported by an unnamed source, was relayed in a report by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in 2017, in which the men are referred to as"Minors A, B and C," but their birth dates match those of al-Nimr, al-Marhoon and al-Zaher.
All of the men were tried and sentenced in the non-Sharia Specialized Criminal Court, or SCC, which was set up in 2008, purportedly to deal with terrorism and state security offences. Generally, the law in Saudi Arabia is Sharia, which is based on Islamic traditions. Al-Hajji painted a grim picture of the court as well: armed guards at every turn, no one but the defendant's attorney and a family member allowed in, surrounded by heavily fortified concrete walls and barriers.
Al-Hajji, along with numerous other human rights activists, left Saudi Arabia to seek asylum in Europe in March 2016. That was two months after al-Nimr's uncle was killed along with 46 other prisoners in January, in a mass execution. "Ali, Abdullah and Dawood's position is now even more difficult than someone who is scheduled to die, because that person knows he may be executed at any moment," al-Hajji said."Their situation is very dangerous. Their families live in constant dread, never knowing who has been killed. In the midst of such terrifying and brutal anticipation, some of them may wish for death to end these horrible feelings.
But U.N. human rights experts said the change wasn't enough, arguing"children should never be subject to the death penalty." Under the the new rule, the death penalty is still in effect for al-Nimr, al-Zaher, and al-Marhoon, who were 17, 16 and 15, respectively, at the time of their arrests. "Saudi Arabia's ruler MBS [Mohammed bin Salman] tortures & executes children," she posted on Twitter on April 24."Already this year, he has killed 100 people. At least 3 today were arrested as teenagers & tortured into false confessions. He killed them for attending protests! Think about that."
Despite the pair's initially promising a reform agenda, called Vision 2030, the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi cast doubts on that effort.
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