Saudi minor sentenced to death receives second death sentence
2 Min Read
The crimes of the Saudi regime against innocent people and minors has no limits.
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Abdullah Al-Howaiti
A Saudi, who was sentenced to death and tortured into signing a false confession when he was a minor, has been taken to hospital after going on hunger strike following his second death sentence in his retrial, a rights group and family members confirmed on Saturday.
Abdullah al-Howaiti has been sentenced to death for a second time. He was 14 years old when he was arrested and tortured into signing a false 'confession'.
— Reprieve (@Reprieve) March 9, 2022
His case exposes Saudi Arabia's claims to have ended the death penalty for children as a lie.https://t.co/OnZgColfbg
Abdullah Al-Howaiti was only 14 when he was arrested in 2017 on alleged charges of armed robbery and killing a police officer in Saudi Arabia's northern Tabuk Province.
He was tortured and forced to confess to the alleged crimes although he had an alibi, and his family said that camera footage showed he was not at the crime scene.
"Abdullah al Huwaiti was convicted in 2019 of murder and armed robbery in 2017, when he was 14. He says he was forced to confess under torture and that closed circuit television footage shows he was elsewhere at the time of the crime."
— Reprieve (@Reprieve) June 8, 2021
Via @thetimes 👇🏽https://t.co/0DFXXmjyYT
Britain-based campaign group Reprieve reported Saturday that Al-Howaiti had been put into solitary confinement and had fallen sick.
💔Abdullah has gone on hunger strike and has been hospitalised after collapsing.
— Reprieve (@Reprieve) March 12, 2022
He was 14 years old when he was arrested and tortured into signing a false 'confession' for a crime he couldn't have committed.
Join us in demanding his immediate release:https://t.co/BNvkFcFtgw
"Abdullah has gone on hunger strike and has been hospitalized after collapsing," Reprieve said.
Last week, his mother had tweeted he had gone on a hunger strike and was refusing to take his medication after he was put in solitary confinement.
Renewed death sentence
Al-Howaiti was first sentenced to death in 2019, with five other defendants handed 15-year prison terms for allegedly aiding and abetting.
But the ruling was last year overturned by the supreme court, which called for a retrial.
In his retrial, he was once again found guilty and was earlier this month sentenced to death for a second time.
Saudi human rights group ALQST condemned the renewed death sentence, saying the trial was "grossly unfair".
Saudi Arabia executes 81 people in one day
In April 2020, Riyadh announced it was ending the death penalty for those convicted of crimes committed while they were under 18.
But ALQST said that since "the alleged offense took place when Howaiti was only 14," it showed the "Saudi authorities' continued application of the death penalty against minors."
It is noteworthy that Saudi Arabia has one of the world's highest execution rates.
On Saturday, the Kingdom confirmed that it executed 81 people in one day for a variety of offenses, exceeding the total number it sentenced to death in total all last year.
