Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court issues new death sentence against man arrested as juvenile

Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court has handed down a new death sentence against a young man, whose previous ruling for alleged crimes committed when he was a minor was overturned last year.

Abdullah al-Huwaiti was arrested in 2017 when he was 14 years old, and given the death penalty after being convicted on murder and armed robbery charges.

A court overturned the conviction in November last year, but Huwaiti was retried by a Tabuk criminal court under qisas – a form of retributive justice that allows the family of the victim to demand a death sentence, diya (blood money), or offer a pardon. 

Huwaiti’s mother announced the news of the court’s sentence in a series of tweets, and called on King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to intervene to save her son’s life.