January 20, 2021 10:34:40 am
Five people in Saudi Arabia who committed crimes as minors are still awaiting execution, despite the kingdom’s April announcement that juvenile offenders would no longer face the death penalty, rights groups said Monday.
In April, Saudia Arabia’s government-operated Human Rights Commission (HRC) announced that a royal decree from King Salman had eliminated the death penalty for people who had committed crimes while underage. Instead of execution, these individuals would now face “a prison sentence of no longer than 10 years in a juvenile detention facility.” HRC president Awwad Alawwad said that “[m]ore reforms will be coming” and that the HRC is “confident that Saudi Arabia will live up to its objectives in creating a better quality of life for all of its citizens and residents.” However, the announcement did not give a timeline for the decree and neither it nor the royal decree were ever properly published or promulgated in state media