Death sentences commuted

Saudi Arabia has lifted the threat of execution from three young men who were convicted of crimes committed as children and for whom Britain had demanded clemency. The authorities in Riyadh confirmed that a decree made last weekend, which ended the use of the death penalty against minors, would apply retrospectively and would include those convicted of terrorism. The original statement had left both issues unclear and a draft of the new law circulated by Saudi lawyers appeared to show that terrorism cases were still exempt. The decree will apply to the cases of Ali al-Nimr, 25, Dawoud al-Marhoun, 25, and Abdullah al-Zaher, 24, all from Saudi Arabia’s Shia minority. They were convicted when children of crimes relating to protests against the authorities that turned into riots. Their cases were raised by Britain in 2015 and although Foreign Office sources said they had been told that the executions would not proceed, the three have remained on death row. Mustafa Hashim al-Darwish, 21, is also covered by the clarification. An announcement in 2018 also abolished the death penalty for minors but excluded terrorism cases and those passed down under the Sharia legal principles of hudud and qisas. The new statement, following a query by The Times, specifies that the decree ‘‘marks an expansion of the domain of the Juvenile Law of 2018’’ and applies to cases heard before then. At least six people were beheaded last year for crimes committed while minors. The decree does not cover qisas and hudud. An additional nine men face the death penalty for crimes committed under these laws while minors, eight of them in counterterrorism courts.