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Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday that Mustafa Hashem al-Darwish had been executed for allegedly participating in anti-government protests years earlier, when he was 17 years old.
Caption switch courtesy of Reprieve
On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia announced that Mustafa Hashem al-Darwish had been executed for allegedly participating in anti-government protests years ago, when he was 17 years old.
Courtesy of Reprieve
Six years ago, Saudi authorities arrested Mustafa Hashim al-Darwish and accused him of attending anti-government protests years earlier, when he was 17. According to Reprieve, a British non-profit organization that investigates human rights abuses, a court found Al-Darwish guilty. He was sentenced to death, even though he was a minor at the time he allegedly attended the protests.
And the Saudi Ministry of Interior announced, on Tuesday, the execution of Al-Darwish, who was 26 years old at the time. The announcement, which was published in Arabic, accused the dervish of “using weapons to revolt against the ruler, destabilizing security and forming an armed terrorist cell.”
Human rights defenders say that Darwish’s trial was unfair. They called on Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of at least nine other people who were sentenced to death for crimes allegedly committed as minors, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits executions for crimes committed by minors.
Groups such as the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch say authorities tortured al-Darwish and others accused of childhood crimes until they confessed.
Abdullah Al-Huwaiti is one of the people sentenced to death for an alleged childhood crime. More than 26,000 people signed Reprieve’s petition to prevent his execution.
“Where is the justice?” Al-Hwaiti’s mother tweeted in Arabic on June 16. “We call on the concerned authorities to intervene and save the innocent… and hold the hidden corrupt to account.”
According to Reprieve, Al-Hwaiti was 14 years old when police arrested him in 2017 and tortured him until he confessed to robbery at a jewelry store. He was convicted and sentenced to death, despite an alibi showing that he was with his friends at the time of the alleged crime.
“We are really terrified that Abdullah, if his death sentence was upheld, would be executed for a crime he could not have committed when he was 14,” said Jaid Bassiouni, who oversees Reprieve’s work on capital punishment in the East. East and North Africa, for NPR.
Abdullah Al-Hwaiti was 14 years old when Saudi authorities arrested him in 2017. Courtesy of Reprieve Hide caption
Caption switch courtesy of Reprieve
Abdullah Al-Hwaiti was 14 years old when Saudi authorities arrested him in 2017.
Courtesy of Reprieve
Saudi Arabia has carried out 26 executions so far this year, according to the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights.
Despite repeated claims by the government of Saudi Arabia to abolish the death penalty for minors, it remains a potential punishment for men like Al-Hwaiti, who face imminent execution for crimes they allegedly committed as children. In 2019, for example, a man arrested at the age of 16 was one of 37 people executed in a mass execution, according to Amnesty International.
“They say things for a quick win, but it seems like no one really wants to do the hard work to ensure that the children are protected,” Bassiouni said.
Months before al-Darwish’s execution, Saudi authorities told the UN Human Rights Council that alleged child offenders would serve a maximum sentence of 10 years in a juvenile institution rather than be executed.
In March, UN human rights experts expressed their “deep concern about the fate of all those still on death row, including Mr. Abdullah Al-Hwaiti, who was also sentenced to death for a crime he allegedly committed as a minor and is now facing execution.” A trial marred by allegations of torture.”
Activists called on prominent government officials, such as British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, to raise Al-Hwaiti’s case with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and condemn the executions for childhood crimes.
“It is important that they know that the world is already paying attention to everything that is happening in Saudi Arabia,” Bassiouni said.
Bassiouni, like the Darwish family, worries that the Al-Huwaiti family will not receive any notification of his execution nor an indication of his burial place.
“Since his arrest, we have known nothing but pain,” the Darwish family said in a statement. “It’s a living death for the whole family.”
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