Rights Group: 80% of People Sentenced to Death as Minors in Saudi Arabia Still Face execution

By Staff, Agencies 

Anti-death penalty group Reprieve highlighted on Friday that 80% of those sentenced to death for crimes in Saudi Arabia while minors still face execution despite reforms announced in 2020.

Saudi authorities said last year they would stop sentencing to death any individuals who committed crimes while minors and would apply this retroactively.

However, the March 2020 royal decree announcing this was not reported by state media or published in the official gazette as would be normal practice. Human rights groups and western lawmakers have raised concerns about its implementation.

Asked whether the decree applied to all types of crimes, the state-backed Human Rights Commission told Reuters in February the ban only applied to a lesser category of offence under a law known as "ta'zeer."

By Reprieve's count, 10 people are currently at risk of execution in the kingdom. Only two of them would be covered by the royal decree's protections.
"When eight out of 10 people facing the death penalty for childhood crimes remain at risk of execution, it's hard to see how anything has changed, despite all the promises of progress and reform," Reprieve Director Maya Foa said.