Criticizing the death sentence of a young Saudi man, the New York Times quoted Arab 21 as saying that similar events cast doubt on Saudi Arabia’s alleged reforms.
The newspaper reviewed court documents regarding a Saudi teenage child and stressed that there are questions about this case. The court shows evidence that the accused teenager was in another place at the time of the crime and the crime was denied.
Details of the charges against “Abdullah Al-Hawiti”
In May 2017, a black-clad and masked thief broke into a jewelry store in the northwestern Saudi city of Dhaba, breaking shop windows, shooting and injuring two employees, and stealing $ 200,000 worth of gold and silver.
A police officer was shot dead while the robber was fleeing. Security forces arrested 14-year-old Abdullah al-Hawiti and charged him with robbery and murder.
According to the newspaper, according to al-Hawiti documents and information, he was elsewhere at the time of the robbery, and the court ignored his claim, which was obtained through a forced confession.
Execution of minors continues in Saudi Arabia
The American newspaper wrote: Human rights organizations cite the case of Abdullah al-Hawiti as an example of the ongoing execution of Saudi Arabia for the crimes they committed as teenagers.
In 2019, 37 people were executed in one day for terrorism-related offenses, two of them under the age of 18, according to Human Rights Watch.
In a statement to the UN Human Rights Council in February, Saudi Arabia denied that he had been abused and claimed that he had confessed to the crimes.
The statement said: The death penalty is used only for the most serious crimes and in very limited circumstances.
The American newspaper further stressed that human rights organizations have long criticized the judicial system in Saudi Arabia for lack of confidence in fair trials and the imposition of punishments such as flogging and beheading in public.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia has announced legal changes to address some of the concerns of human rights organizations as part of a reform campaign launched by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The Saudi Supreme Court last year banned flogging and instead ordered judges to impose fines or imprisonment. Last January, Saudi officials announced that the number of executions in 2020 had dropped from 184 in 2019 to 27.
Human rights activists have called on Riyadh to stop the execution of people under the age of 18, which is prohibited under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In 2018, Saudi officials announced the end of the death penalty for people under the age of 18 and juveniles for some crimes. But this ban did not cover all cases. Those who committed murder and crimes such as adultery, apostasy and robbery can still be executed if convicted of robbery.
Earlier, al-Hawiti said that Saudi interrogators had beaten him, robbed him of sleep, and threatened his relatives, according to court documents, that they would harm them if he did not confess.
“Michael Page, Middle East deputy director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement that Saudi public relations experts hail judicial reform as Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, while the fact is that prosecutors explicitly ignore judicial reform and continue to work.