[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

June 16




SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi teenager arrested at 13 spared from execution, source says



Murtaja Qureiris, the 18-year-old who had been facing the death penalty in 
Saudi Arabia, has been spared execution and sentenced to 12 years in prison, 
according to a source familiar with the matter.

The source told CNN that Qureiris, who was arrested at the age of 13 by Saudi 
authorities, could be released by 2022.

Qureiris's sentence includes time served since his arrest in 2014, with the 4 
final years on probation, leaving him with three years left in prison.

A Saudi official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that 
timeline to Reuters.

CNN has reached out to the Saudi government for comment.

International pressure had been mounting on the kingdom after CNN reported on 
Qureiris's case.

In Austria, the country's parliament, voted to close a Saudi-backed center for 
interfaith dialogue, in protest against the detention of Qureiris.

Qureiris was 10 years old when he committed at least one of the acts alleged in 
his charge sheet.

He was charged with accompanying his activist brother, Ali Qureris, on a 
motorcycle ride to a police station in the eastern Saudi city of Awamiya, where 
Ali allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at the facility.

His other alleged crime includes attending his brother's funeral which later 
became a rally.

Qureiris has denied the charges and said that the confessions, which the 
prosecution has largely relied on, were obtained under duress.

At the time of arrest, Qureiris was considered by lawyers and activists to be 
the youngest known political prisoner in Saudi Arabia.

Murtaja Qureiris is from a Shia family in the eastern province of the majority 
Sunni Saudi Arabia.

In April, Saudi Arabia announced it had executed 37 men who, according to 
rights group Reprieve, were mostly from the kingdom's Shia minority.

At least 3of the men executed were minors at the time of the commission of 
alleged crimes, court documents reviewed by CNN and Reprieve showed.

All 3 were arrested for violence the government says was committed during 
protests around the time of the Arab Spring. But the prosecution relied heavily 
on confessions which the prisoners said were extracted from them. In the court 
proceedings, they said that they were tortured, the confessions made under 
duress.

The country has one of the highest rates of execution in the world, and has 
frequently been criticized by rights groups for executing people who were 
minors at the time of the commission of crimes.

Amnesty International responded to the news about Qureiris's case on Twitter 
Sunday: "Much relief to learn that Saudi authorities confirm that 
#MurtajaQureiris will NOT be sentenced to death. #EndDeathPenalty 
#SaudiArabia."

(source: CNN)








PAKISTAN:

Rights Group Calls On Pakistan To Halt Execution Of Mentally Ill Man



A rights group has urged the Pakistani government not to execute a prisoner 
with "clear symptoms of mental illness," who is scheduled to be hanged on June 
18.

? Sarah Belal, executive director of Justice Project Pakistan, which campaigns 
against the death penalty, said on June 16 that the government must halt the 
execution of Ghulam Abbas, 36, for further evaluation.

"Abbas's execution must be stayed and he should be transferred to a mental 
health facility to be comprehensively assessed,” the rights group said.

Citing a prominent psychiatrist, Dr. Malik Hussain Mubbashar, the statement 
says Abbas's medical records show he's being treated with strong anti-psychotic 
drugs by prison authorities and has a family history of mental illness.

Abbas was sentenced to death in 2006 for fatally stabbing a neighbor in 2004.

Pakistan is a signatory of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with 
Disabilities, an international convention guaranteeing the dignity of 
individuals with disabilities.

The country lifted a six-year moratorium on the death penalty after Islamist 
militants killed more than 150 people at a school in the northwestern city of 
Peshawar in December 2014.

(source: rferl.org)