A group of United Nations human rights experts has called on Saudi Arabia to immediately release five individuals sentenced to death for alleged offenses committed when they were minors, warning that their executions would constitute a violation of international law.
The experts expressed grave concern over the cases of Abdullah al-Derazi, Jalal al-Labbad, Yusuf Muhammad Mahdi al-Manasif, Jawad Abdullah Qureiris, and Hassan Zaki al-Faraj. All five were reportedly arrested for participating in protests against the government’s treatment of the Shia Muslim minority and for attending funerals of individuals killed by state authorities. Each now faces imminent execution.
“Enforcing a death sentence in violation of a State’s obligations under international law amounts to arbitrary execution and is therefore unlawful,” the experts said in a joint statement.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention previously concluded that the detention of the five was arbitrary, stating that their imprisonment lacked a valid legal basis and stemmed from their peaceful exercise of the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association.
The experts also raised serious concerns about the fairness of the trials, pointing to reports of ill-treatment and torture used to extract confessions. “Alleged forced confessions taint the entire trial process, regardless of whether other evidence was available,” they emphasized.
Highlighting that the accused are members of Saudi Arabia’s Shia minority, the experts said the prosecutions appear to be motivated by religious discrimination. “We are alarmed by the pattern of persecution and long history of discrimination against the Shia religious minority in Saudi Arabia,” the statement said.
They also noted a broader context of concern: a surge in executions in the kingdom, with at least 65 carried out since the beginning of 2025.
The experts reiterated that under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Saudi Arabia is a party, capital punishment and life imprisonment without parole are strictly prohibited for crimes committed by individuals under the age of 18.
“We call for the immediate release of the five individuals, to prevent any irreparable harm to their lives or personal integrity,” the experts concluded.
