‘Cruellest violation’: Saudi Arabia executes second child offender in two months

Saudi Arabia has executed a man who was a minor at the time of the crimes he had allegedly committed, in violation of international law.

Abdullah al-Derazi was put to death on Monday, becoming the second child offender to be executed by Saudi authorities in two months. 

Derazi was arrested in 2014 and faced trial three years later in Saudi Arabia’s specialised criminal court, which handles terrorism cases.

The charges relate to protests in 2011 and 2012 against the treatment of the kingdom’s Shia minority. At the time, Derazi, then 17, was accused of “targeting security personnel” and “throwing Molotov cocktails”.

In August 2018, he was convicted and sentenced to death. 

Imposing the death penalty on individuals who were under 18 at the time of the crime is prohibited under international human rights law, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Saudi Arabia is a signatory of. 

“From the moment of his arrest over a decade ago to his grossly unfair and secretive trial, Derazi endured a relentless pattern of abuse at the hands of Saudi authorities - culminating in the cruellest violation: the denial of his right to life,” Nadyeen Abdulaziz, of UK-based rights group Alqst, told Middle East Eye. 

“Like the execution of Jalal Labbad two months ago, it underscores the Saudi authorities’ contempt for the international prohibition on capital punishment for acts committed by minors. 

“International scrutiny is now desperately needed to save the lives of others on death row.”

Labbad was executed on 21 August on similar charges related to protests he participated in as a child. 

According to Alqst, Derazi was held incommunicado in solitary confinement for months after his arrest, during which he was subjected to burns and beatings that left him with broken teeth and a knee injury requiring hospitalisation.

Confession under duress 

In court hearings, in which Derazi was not assigned a lawyer until proceedings had already commenced, the young man said he was forced under duress to sign confessions. 

“Bear in mind that I was beaten and tortured by various means while I categorically rejected in their presence all the baseless accusations made against me,” Derazi said in court. 

“One of them came to me while I was blindfolded and told me they had found me not guilty, and he was going to get me to put my fingerprint on a set of documents for my release. 

“Because I was young and had no understanding of these matters I believed him and put my prints on some papers, trusting that I had been acquitted and they were going to release me, not suddenly hand me over to the [General Investigations Directorate].”

'Saudi authorities lay bare the emptiness of their reform claims, and their chilling disregard for international law' 

- Nadyeen Abdulaziz, Alqst

Derazi’s family were prevented from saying farewell to him and only learned of his execution in the media, Alqst reported. 

In 2020, amid global scrutiny, Saudi authorities vowed to end judges’ discretion to impose the death penalty on child convicts. The kingdom’s human rights commission said a royal order had been issued to stop the death penalty for juvenile convicts. 

However, several executions of people who committed crimes as minors have occurred since that statement.

“With [Derazi’s] execution, Saudi authorities lay bare the emptiness of their reform claims, and their chilling disregard for international law,” said Abdulaziz.

Alqst identified at least five other child offenders, Youssef al-Manasef, Ali Hassan al-Subaiti, Ali al-Mabiyouq, Jawad Qureiris and Hassan al-Faraj, at imminent risk of execution. 

At least 302 people have been executed by Saudi Arabia so far in 2025, a rise of more than 30 percent compared with the same period in 2024.

Last year there were 345 executions in Saudi Arabia, the highest number in its history. 

The majority of executions this year were for non-lethal drug-related offences, and terrorism charges - some of which were vague under Saudi Arabia’s broad definition of the term. 

As such, many of these impositions of the death penalty may be in violation of international law, which only allows for use of the death penalty in relation to the “most serious crimes” involving intentional killings.