United Nations legal experts urged Saudi Arabia on Monday to reverse a death sentence imposed on Abdullah al-Howaiti, a man who was convicted for crimes reportedly committed when he was a minor.
Jeed Basyouni, who leads Reprieve’s Middle East and North Africa work, said that “from the moment police raided the Howaiti family home and dragged out 14-year-old Abdullah, the Saudi justice system has been on autopilot, punishing him for a crime he cannot have committed”.
“Every court knew how young he was. Every court heard he had an alibi. Every court was told he was tortured. But they sent him to death row and kept him in a cell, when he should have been playing football with his friends.
“Abdullah will never get back the teenage years he spent fearing for his life, but it’s not too late for the Saudi courts to do the right thing. The world is watching.”
Read the full story in Middle East Eye.