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Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Photo: HANDOUT / REUTERS
A man has been executed in Saudi Arabia who, according to human rights activists, may still be a minor at the time of his alleged crime. The man named Mustafa al-Darwish was executed on Tuesday, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced. According to official sources, he had been sentenced to death for forming a terrorist network and participating in an armed uprising. Saudi Arabia is one of the countries with the highest number of executions in the world.
Amnesty International, however, assumes that the man was arrested for participating in riots critical of the government in 2011.
He is said to have been only 17 or 18 years old at the time.
According to human rights activists, his trial was based on a confession obtained through torture.
Last year the Islamic conservative kingdom announced judicial reforms, including the abolition of the death penalty for minors.
Saudi Arabia has long been criticized for its prison system.
Some of the convicts were beheaded, shot or whipped in public.
In 2019, the strictly conservative kingdom was the country with the most executions in the world after China and Iran, according to Amnesty International.
In 2020, however, the number of executions fell sharply.
Lighter penalties for minors - actually
This is also due to the modernization in the country promoted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In 2018, Saudi Arabia abolished the death penalty for drug offenses in an extensive reform.
The punishments for minors have also been lessened.
Most recently, in spring 2020, the royal family affirmed in a decree not to execute any more convicts under 18 years of age.
The death penalty would no longer be imposed on defendants who were minors at the time of the crime, it said at the time.
For a long time, however, it was unclear whether Saudi Arabia would actually implement the decree.
Until recently, human rights activists warned that the detainees were still threatened with death - as is now allegedly in the Mustafa al-Darwish case.
mrc / dpa