The UN has issued an urgent call for Saudi Arabia to halt the
execution of a young man who faces imminent beheading and crucifixion
for crimes he reportedly committed as a child.
A Saudi court has
upheld the sentence of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, the son of a prominent
government dissident, despite growing and high-level international
condemnation.
Mr al-Nimr, who was arrested in 2012 for his
participation in Arab Spring protests when he was just 16 or 17 years
old, could now be put to death at any time.
The young man’s case
has been the subject of fervent campaigning from rights groups including
Amnesty International and Reprieve, who say he was tortured and forced
to sign a false confession before being sentenced to “death by
crucifixion”.
Now, a group of UN human rights experts have penned a
joint statement calling on Saudi Arabia to “immediately halt the
scheduled execution” and give Mr al-Nimr “a fair retrial”.
The
experts, including the UN’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial or
arbitrary executions Christof Heyns and Benyam Mezmur, the chair of the
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, said imposing the death penalty
on someone who was a child at the time of offending and after
allegations of torture was “incompatible with Saudi Arabia’s
international obligations”.
“International law, accepted as
binding by Saudi Arabia, provides that capital punishment may only be
imposed following trials that comply with the most stringent
requirements of fair trial and due process, or could otherwise be
considered an arbitrary execution,” they said.
“In light of
reports that the trial against Mr al-Nimr fell short of such standards,
we call upon the Saudi authorities to ensure a fair retrial of Ali
Mohammed al-Nimr, and to immediately halt the scheduled execution,” the
experts added.
The French government has also taken the unusual
step of adding its voice to calls for a stay of Mr al-Nimr’s execution.
Foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said: “France is concerned about
the situation of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, who was sentenced to death even
though he was a minor at the time of the events.
Friday, September 25, 2015
UN issues urgent call for Saudi Arabia to stay execution of juvenile offender
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