News - Middle East: The Europea-Saudi Organization for Human Rights called on the Public Prosecution in Saudi Arabia to annul the maximum punishment against Yousef Al-Manasif and 5 others, including the detainee, Sajjad Al Yassin.

The organization said in a statement that six detainees have been subjected to a mass trial at the Specialized Criminal Court since September 20, 2019, and so far, no initial ruling has been issued against them.

The organization pointed out that the arrest of Al-Manasif (26 years old) took place on April 6, 2017, near the Qatif Court. It pointed out that Al-Manasif was subjected to severe physical torture during the arrest period, which led to him losing consciousness and entering the hospital.

The organization added that the Public Prosecution charged Al-Manasif with several charges, most of which were in childhood, stressing that it did not present any evidence of the charges against him, except for the statements that were extracted from him under torture.

It also indicated that Al-Manasif was deprived of his basic right to a lawyer throughout the investigation period and pretrial detention, which extended to 29 months, in flagrant violation of local regulations and fair trial conditions.

It considered that the government's continued demand for the execution of Al-Manasif indicates its lack of seriousness in implementing the juvenile system and its non-compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Recently, Human Rights Watch has repeatedly criticized rampant abuses in Saudi Arabia’s criminal justice system. People accused of crimes, including children, commonly face systematic violations of due process and fair trial rights, including arbitrary arrest. 

Human Rights Watch has documented egregious due process violations in the court and criminal justice system against defendants in criminal cases. These include long periods of detention without charge or trial, a lack of legal assistance, pressure to sign confessions and accept predetermined prison sentences to avoid prolonged arbitrary detention, and ineffective or pernicious translation services for defendants.

Human Rights Watch has also repeatedly criticized Saudi courts’ reliance on torture-tainted confessions as the sole basis of conviction in certain cases.

As part of a slew of legal reforms announced on February 8, 2021, the country’s first written penal code for discretionary crimes – crimes under Islamic law that have not been defined in writing and that do not carry predetermined punishments – is being prepared, though apparently without any consultation with civil society.