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.
