Riyadh yet to scrap minors’ death penalty

Five people who committed crimes in Saudi Arabia as minors have yet to have their death sentences revoked, according to two rights groups, nine months after the kingdom’s Human Rights Commission (HRC) announced an end to capital punishment for juvenile offenders.

The state-backed HRC in April cited a March royal decree by King Salman stipulating that individuals sentenced to death for crimes committed while minors will no longer face execution and would instead serve prison terms of up to 10 years in juvenile detention centres.

The statement did not specify a timeline, but in October, in response to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), it said the decree had come into force immediately upon announcement.

The decree was never carried on state media nor published in the official gazette as would be normal practice.

In December, state news agency SPA published a list of prominent “events” of 2020 featuring several royal decrees, but the death penalty order was not included.

Organisations including anti-death penalty group Reprieve, HRW and the European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) as well as a group of US lawmakers have raised concerns that loopholes in Saudi law could still allow judges to impose the death sentence on juvenile offenders.

One of the five has appealed and eight face charges that could result in execution, said the groups.

The government’s Centre for International Communications (CIC) dismissed the concerns, saying that the decree would be applied retroactively to all cases where an individual was sentenced to death for offences committed under the age of 18.

“The Royal Order issued in March 2020 was put into effect immediately upon its issuance and was circulated to the relevant authorities for instant implementation,” the CIC said in an emailed statement. The HRC declined to comment.

Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s top executioners after Iran and China, rights groups say.