UN Experts Condemn Saudi Execution and Demand Urgent Reprieve for Two Men at Risk

The Saudi Ministry of Interior announced on 17 October 2026 that al-Faraj had been executed alongside four other men, with his family reportedly receiving no advance notice and his remains withheld, according to the experts’ statement.

UN experts have condemned Saudi Arabia's execution of Hassan Zaki al-Faraj for acts allegedly committed when he was a child, calling on authorities to immediately stop the imminent executions of Yusuf Muhammad Mahdi al-Manasif and Mohammad Labbad. The Saudi Ministry of Interior announced on 17 October 2026 that al-Faraj had been executed alongside four other men, with his family reportedly receiving no advance notice and his remains withheld, according to the experts' statement.

"We are appalled by Saudi Arabia's execution of al-Faraj," the experts said, stressing that executing someone for an offence committed as a child is absolutely prohibited under international law and constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of life.

Childhood allegations and reported torture raise concerns

Charges against al-Faraj included participation in protests and funeral processions when he was 14 or 15 years old, with reports indicating that he was tortured into confessing, spent about three months in solitary confinement and was denied access to a lawyer for three years. The experts said he was the fourth person executed in Saudi Arabia for alleged childhood offences in just over a year, despite a 2020 Royal Decree presented as ending death sentences for child offenders in ta'zir cases.

They called on authorities to immediately return his body to his family and permit an independent medico-legal examination, describing the secrecy surrounding his execution and the withholding of his remains as sources of profound suffering. "Keeping a family in the dark about the execution of their loved one, and withholding his remains, inflicts profound anguish and amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," they said.

Two men face imminent execution after reported court decisions

The experts expressed grave alarm over the cases of al-Manasif and Labbad, whose death sentences were reportedly upheld by Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court, leaving both men at imminent risk of execution. According to the experts, both were convicted in reprisal for joining peaceful protests against the treatment of the Shia minority in 2011 and 2012, a period when al-Manasif was 15 or 16 years old.

"Saudi Arabia must immediately halt their executions and quash their death sentences," the experts said, demanding urgent intervention before the sentences are carried out. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has already found the detention of all three men arbitrary and called for their release in Opinion No. 71 (2024) and Opinion No. 60 (2025).

Experts demand commutations and a moratorium on executions

The experts recalled that the Convention on the Rights of the Child categorically prohibits capital punishment for offences committed by anyone under 18, making a person's age at the time of the alleged offence central to that protection. They also stressed that imposing and carrying out death sentences in breach of fair trial guarantees, including through confessions extracted under torture, violates the absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, from which no derogation is permitted.

Saudi authorities should immediately commute all death sentences, they said, particularly those imposed for childhood offences or crimes that do not meet the threshold of the "most serious crimes".

The experts raised further concerns about vague counter-terrorism legislation being used to impose death sentences and the reported targeting of members of the Shia minority, calling for retrials that fully meet international standards. They urged Saudi Arabia to establish an immediate moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty, and confirmed that they have been in contact with the Government about these cases.