Saudi Arabia threatens the life of Jawad Qureiris with charges that occurred while he was a minor. This brings the number of minors threatened with execution, whose cases the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights was able to monitor, to 8.
Jawad is the brother of the youngest political detainee, Murtaja Qureiris, who was released months ago after the prosecution demanded his death. Despite the Juvenile Law and the Royal Order, the number of minors threatened with execution continues to rise. These numbers return the file of the execution of minors to before the torrent of promises that Saudi Arabia promoted that it protects minors from the death penalty, and thus prove the falsehood of these promises.
Jawad Abdullah Qureiris, born on 16 October 1997, and he was arrested on 1 January 2021 from his home in Qatif through a raid carried out by security forces believed to be affiliated with the State Security Presidency, which was established in July 2017, and which is the security arm of the king and his crown prince.
Qureiris was subjected to torture from the moment of arrest and during the interrogation in order to extract confessions from him by severe beatings and severe psychological torture. He remained in solitary confinement for 270 days. As a result of what he was exposed to and for fear of re-interrogation, he approved the statements attributed to him.
In May 2022, his trial began before the notorious Specialized Criminal Court, and the Public Prosecution charged him with a number of charges, including allegations of charges while he was a minor. Among the charges, following Facebook pages, communicating with a wanted person, training in the use of weapons and shooting, and participating in the burning of an oil pipeline.
Before the judge, Jawad confirmed that the confessions were extracted from him under torture, and asked the Public Prosecution to present the clips of the recordings in the interrogation rooms that definitely prove that there was no acknowledgment of any of the charges and actions attributed to him. He also requested that the investigator and the police clerk be brought in to take their testimony about the torture he was subjected to.
In addition to torture, since his arrest, Jawad has been subjected to a number of violations, including being denied access to his family and the assistance of a lawyer during the investigation. After the trial began, the legal representative was denied access to all statements and evidence. In spite of this, the Public Prosecution demanded that he be killed with the penalty of Harbah, even if it was a disciplinary punishment.
The organisation notes that Saudi Arabia had arrested Jawad's brother, Reda, in 2014, and sentenced him to 12 years in prison, and after 3 months, arrested his brother, Murtaja, to be the youngest political prisoner. At the end of 2018, their father Abdullah Qureiris was summoned to the police station to be arbitrarily detained until April 2021, despite his deteriorating health condition. In addition, the older brother, Ali Qureiris, was shot dead by security forces during the 2011 protests.
ESOHR confirms that the charges relied on by the Public Prosecution, and with the time analysis carried out by the organization, indicate an age of less than 18 years. Therefore, according to the juvenile law, he should not face a death sentence.
In addition, the organisation stresses that the charges that Qureiris faces are not among the most serious in international law, as they do not include murder charges. It is also deprived of the most basic conditions of justice, including protection from torture, and therefore the Saudi government in this case violates a number of pledges and obligations, including the Convention against Torture and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as domestic laws, most notably the Juvenile Law.
ESOHR stresses that the lack of transparency in the Saudi government's dealings prevents access to the exact numbers of the number of people under threat of death in Saudi Arabia, including minors. Despite this, monitoring indicates that 8 minors face the death penalty, which refutes all official promises to stop the execution of persons under the age of 18, and raises serious fears that their lives are in imminent danger.