Saudi Arabia has abolished the death penalty for crimes committed by minors, a Saudi official said Sunday, a few days after the announcement of the abolition of flogging, sentences criticized by NGOs. The ultra-conservative kingdom is regularly accused of human rights violations by international NGOs.
The death penalty has been lifted for those convicted of crimes committed when they were minors, said the head of the Human Rights Commission, a government agency, Awad Al-Awad, in a statement, citing a royal decree. A prison sentence not exceeding 10 years in a juvenile detention center will replace the death penalty, he said.
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The decree should spare at least six men from the Shiite Muslim community, a minority in the Sunni kingdom, who had been sentenced to death for participating in anti-government protests when they were under the age of 18. "This is an important day for Saudi Arabia," said Awad. "This decree helps us establish a more modern penal code."
In a report on the death penalty worldwide this week, Amnesty International said that "Saudi Arabia executed a record number of people in 2019, despite a general drop in executions worldwide." Homicide, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking, armed robbery, witchcraft, adultery, sodomy, homosexuality and apostasy are punishable by death in the kingdom , which follows a rigorous version of Islam.