On 20 October 2025 the Saudi authorities executed Abdullah al-Derazi, a young man convicted after a grossly unfair trial of “terrorist” crimes allegedly committed when he was a minor, in blatant disregard of international human rights law. This makes him the second child offender to be executed in Saudi Arabia in two months, and heightens concerns for other child offenders at imminent risk of execution.
ALQST’s Monitoring and Advocacy Officer Nadyeen Abdulaziz comments: “Al-Derazi's execution is grotesque — a final, cruel act against a Saudi youth who endured severe abuse and flagrant violations throughout his detention and trial. 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.”
Abdullah Mohammed al-Derazi (born 8 October 1995) was arrested by force without a warrant as an 18-year-old on 27 August 2014. He went on trial in August 2017 in the Specialised Criminal Court (SCC), which handles terrorism cases, and which in August 2018 convicted him and sentenced him to death. The sentence was upheld by the SCC Appeal Court in August 2022 and by the Supreme Court, in secret, in 2023. ALQST has reviewed court documents that show the list of “terrorist” charges brought against him, including “targeting of security personnel” and “throwing Molotov cocktails”. These relate to protests back in 2011 and 2012 against the treatment of Saudi Arabia’s marginalised Shia community, in which al-Derazi took part when he was only 17.
Al-Derazi suffered severe abuses during his arrest, detention and trial, which failed to meet basic due process standards and relied on confessions allegedly extracted under torture – an allegation that was never investigated. After his arrest al-Derazi was held incommunicado in solitary confinement for several months, during which he was subjected to physical torture including beatings and burns, resulting in broken teeth and a knee injury that required hospitalisation. During court hearings – where he was not assigned a lawyer until the proceedings were already under way – al-Derazi attested that he had been forced to sign confessions under duress, and asked the court not to rely on statements submitted by the Public Prosecution:
“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; 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; and 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 Mabaheth (General Investigations Directorate).”
In a further act of cruelty, al-Derazi's family were prevented from saying their farewells to him and learned only through the media that his execution had been carried out. The Saudi authorities often in this way deny families the chance to mourn their loved ones in accordance with their religious practices, and in many cases also fail to return victims’ bodies to their families.
Applying the death penalty to people who were under 18 years old at the time of the crime of which they are convicted is prohibited by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Saudi Arabia is a party. Amid international criticism, the Saudi authorities in 2020 purportedly issued a decree ending judges’ discretion to hand down death sentences to minors. The measure, however, contained loopholes whereby underage offenders can still be executed, such as by excluding cases brought under the Counter-Terrorism Law, as in the cases of Mustafa al-Darwish, executed in 2021, Jalal Labbad, executed in August 2025, and now Abdullah al-Derazi. Saudi Arabia’s official Human Rights Commission later insisted that “no one in Saudi Arabia will be executed for a crime committed as a minor”. The executions that have taken place since then thus contradict official claims to have ended the practice of executing child offenders.
They also raise grave fears for other child offenders at imminent risk of execution. At least five others – Youssef al-Manasef, Ali Hassan al-Subaiti, Ali al-Mabiyouq, Jawad Qureiris and Hassan al-Faraj – recently had their death sentences upheld by the Specialised Criminal Court of Appeal. UN experts have repeatedly found the detention and death sentences of Labbad, al-Derazi and three other child offenders to be arbitrary, and as recently as April 2025 called for their immediate release.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s profligate use of the death penalty continues apace. At least 302 people have been executed so far in 2025 (as of 21 October) – a more than 30% increase on the same period in 2024, the year that saw the highest recorded number of executions in Saudi history: 345. The majority of executions this year (204) have been for non-lethal drug-related offences, and 35 for terrorism-related offences, which according to the vague and overly broad definition in Saudi law can include a wide range of non-lethal acts. Both these types of execution are in clear violation of international human rights law, which limits use of the death penalty – where practised – to only the “most serious crimes”, involving intentional killing.
ALQST once again urges the Saudi authorities to immediately establish a moratorium on executions, with a view to abolishing the death penalty for all crimes. Pending full abolition, Saudi Arabia must immediately remove from its laws all death penalty provisions that are in breach of international human rights law, such as for crimes that do not meet the threshold of “most serious crimes”, and for crimes committed by minors.
