Saudi Arabia: Death penalty against juvenile offender amounts to arbitrary deprivation of life, say UN experts

GENEVA (31 May 2022) – UN human rights experts* today called on the Government of Saudi Arabia to immediately release Abdullah al-Howaiti and quash the death penalty against him for crimes he allegedly committed as a child.

Al-Howaiti was arrested in May 2017, when he was only 14 years old, accused of robbery and murder, and convicted, despite having an alibi, based on a confession of guilt extracted under torture and other ill-treatment. Al-Howaiti was recently sentenced to death for a second time after his original conviction was overturned by the Saudi Supreme Court in 2021.

“We are alarmed by the confirmation of the death sentence against Mr. Al-Howaiti, on 2 March 2022, without initiating any investigation into the allegations of torture or determining the veracity of the coerced confession of guilt,” the experts said.

If confirmed by the Court of Appeal, the death penalty would be final and Al-Howaiti will be at an imminent risk of execution.

The UN experts were dismayed by the conviction of Al-Howaiti following a trial marred with due process irregularities, including failure to consider an alibi, the dismissal of allegations of torture and ill-treatment and the admission of torture tainted confessions as incriminating evidence, without proper investigation.

“We would like to remind the Saudi authorities of their obligation to conduct a prompt and impartial investigation wherever there are reasonable grounds to believe that torture has been committed, and to exclude any evidence obtained through torture and coercion from judicial proceedings,” they said.

The imposition of the death penalty on children is absolutely prohibited under international law. No exception or derogation from this prohibition is possible under any circumstances, the UN experts recalled.

“We urge the Saudi Government to adopt without delay the necessary legislative measures to abolish the imposition of the death penalty for children for all crimes, including in relation to offences punished under qisas and hudud,” the experts said. Qisas is a category of retributive justice for murder in Saudi Arabia, which allows families of the victims to demand the death sentence, compensation or offer a pardon, while hudud refers to Islamic penal law or Quranic punishments for offences including theft, brigandage, adultery and apostasy.

In November 2021, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded in its opinion No. 72/2021 that the detention of Al-Howaiti was arbitrary.

“Prolonged incommunicado detention can facilitate the perpetration of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and can in itself constitute a form of such treatment,” the experts said.

The UN experts have previously expressed their concerns regarding this case to the Government of Saudi Arabia. They reiterated their request to the authorities to take immediate measures to protect the moral and physical integrity of Abdullah Al-Howaiti, considering his age and vulnerability. 

ENDS