A controversial execution carried out by Saudi Arabia has drawn sharp international condemnation from global human rights organizations after it emerged the person put to death was convicted for crimes he was accused of committing when he was a minor. The case has reignited widespread scrutiny of the kingdom’s use of the death penalty against people who committed alleged offenses before reaching adulthood, even after legal reforms purported to ban such practices.
Hassan Zaki al-Faraj was executed by Saudi authorities this past Saturday, according to a public statement released by New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW). Court documents and rights group investigations confirm al-Faraj was just 14 years old at the time of the alleged offenses, which included charges of “meeting and developing friendships with other detained and wanted individuals.”
Joey Shea, senior Saudi Arabia researcher at HRW, described the execution as unconscionable, noting the case relied heavily on evidence obtained through torture and followed a pattern of widely documented unfair trial proceedings in Saudi Arabia’s judicial system. Shea also warned that a second young man, Yousef al-Manasif, now faces imminent risk of execution after Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court upheld his death sentence earlier this year. Al-Manasif was convicted for alleged offenses committed when he was between 15 and 16 years old.
According to HRW’s timeline of the al-Faraj case, he was first taken into custody by Saudi security forces in 2017. It was not until 2022 that the kingdom’s Specialized Criminal Court handed down the death penalty. His legal team has repeatedly alleged that al-Faraj was subjected to routine torture while in detention and was forced to sign a confession that was later used as the primary evidence against him at trial. HRW also confirmed that al-Faraj was held in prolonged solitary confinement throughout his detention, a practice widely criticized by international human rights bodies as a form of cruel and inhumane treatment.
The European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR), which has documented hundreds of death penalty cases in Saudi Arabia, has also corroborated details of al-Manasif’s case. Al-Manasif was arrested in April 2017 on charges related to participating in protests against the Saudi government’s treatment of the country’s Shia minority, as well as attending funeral processions in 2011 and 2012, when he was a minor. In 2024, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention released an official opinion finding that the detentions of al-Faraj, al-Manasif, and three other Saudi detainees – Jawad Qureiris, Abdullah al-Derazi, and Jalal al-Labbad – were arbitrary, and their judicial proceedings included severe violations of international fair trial standards. The UN body concluded that the detentions violated multiple provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and called for the immediate release of all five men, as well as financial compensation for their unlawful detention.
The UN working group’s report also detailed allegations from al-Manasif that he was subjected to both physical and psychological torture while in custody, and was coerced into signing confessions that were later used to secure his conviction. Multiple other detainees facing death sentences for alleged childhood offenses have raised similar claims. Ali al-Mabyook, another Saudi national, was sentenced to death for offenses that included attending funeral processions before he turned 18, according to HRW and unsealed court documents. Rights groups have raised alarm over his case as well, citing misuse of counterterrorism legislation and repeated allegations of coerced confessions. Jawad Qureiris, who was sentenced to death in 2022, was also convicted over acts he allegedly committed as a minor. The UN working group confirmed that Qureiris alleged he was tortured and held in solitary confinement for 270 consecutive days to force him to confess.
In April 2026, Saudi authorities executed Ali al-Subaiti, according to an official announcement from the Saudi Press Agency. HRW investigations found that al-Subaiti was sentenced to death for participating in a public demonstration when he was just 12 years old.
Saudi Arabia introduced legal reforms in 2018 with a new Juvenile Law, followed by a 2020 executive order, that were marketed to the international community as new protections against the death penalty for offenses committed by people under 18. However, HRW and other rights groups argue that these reforms contain critical loopholes that exclude many defendants prosecuted under the kingdom’s broad counterterrorism legislation. As a result, dozens of people convicted over alleged childhood offenses remain on death row and at imminent risk of execution.
In a statement following al-Faraj’s execution, Shea warned that Saudi Arabia’s ongoing wave of executions – particularly of people convicted for offenses committed as children – shows no sign of slowing in 2026. “This underscores the urgent need for the international community to press the Saudi government to immediately halt all executions and abolish the death penalty once and for all,” Shea said.
Saudi government officials have rejected all these allegations, stating that claims of systemic human rights violations in these cases are unfounded. The government maintains that all judicial proceedings and capital punishment practices in the kingdom comply with international human rights standards.