Saudis vowed to stop executing minors; some death sentences remain, rights groups say netscape.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from netscape.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Nine months after Saudi Arabia vowed to stop executing convicted minors, the kingdom is yet to revoke five death sentences, a Reuters investigation has found.
In April, Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Commission (HRC) referred to a March decree by King Salman bin Abdulaziz, which indicated that those convicted for crimes committed as minors would serve prison terms of up to 10 years, instead of facing the capital penalty.
The decree did not stipulate a timeline for it to come into effect.
Saudi executions at record low as five convicted as minors still on death row
Rights groups fear that five people convicted as juveniles could still face the death penalty despite changes in law
Supporters in Greece protesting the execution of prominent Saudi Shiite cleric and activist Nimr al-Nimr during a demonstration near Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Athens on 6 January 2016 (AFP) By Published date: 18 January 2021 15:29 UTC | Last update: 2 months 4 weeks ago
Saudi Arabia has drastically reduced the number of people it executed in the last year, but rights groups have warned that five people who committed crimes as minors are still on death row.
Several groups fear that loopholes in Saudi law will allow judges to impose the death sentence on juvenile offenders nonetheless under the interpretation of sharia, the Islamic law since Saudi Arabia has no civil penal code
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image captionThe campaign group Reprieve said there was reason to believe the number of executions would rise in 2021
Saudi Arabia drastically reduced the number of people it put to death last year, according to a governmental body.
It attributed that in part to an unannounced moratorium on executions for drug-related offences, giving more non-violent criminals a second chance .
The campaign group Reprieve warned that the number might increase this year. The decline can partly be attributed to the Covid-19 lockdown from February to April, when the government carried out no executions due to restrictions to control the virus, it said.