Man faces imminent execution for crimes committed as a minor in KSA

Human rights organizations warned Tuesday that a young Saudi man sentenced to death for crimes committed as a minor faces imminent execution, days after another man was executed in a similar case, AFP reported.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Youssef al-Manasif, 30, was sentenced to death on terrorism charges over his alleged participation in Arab Spring protests and funerals for people killed in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province in 2011 and 2012, when he was 15 and 16. His appeal was rejected.

On Saturday, Hassan Zaki al-Faraj and four other men were executed on terrorism charges in the oil-rich Eastern Province, home to most of Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority, which has long denounced its marginalization in the predominantly Sunni kingdom. According to HRW, al-Faraj was convicted of crimes committed when he was 14.

Al-Manasif, who was arrested in 2017, “also faces a serious risk of execution,” HRW’s Joey Shea said. Saudi Arabia has executed 15 people on terrorism charges since January, mainly in the country’s east, compared with 40 in 2025.

“Youssef al-Manasif and his family are living in terror, fearing that he will be the next to be executed,” Jeed Basyouni of London-based human rights organization Reprieve told Agence France-Presse. In April 2025, eight independent United Nations experts warned of the risk of the “imminent” execution of five Saudi Shiites, including al-Faraj and al-Manasif, who were sentenced to death for acts they allegedly committed as minors.

Calling for their release, the experts expressed concern over a “pattern of persecution” and a long history of discrimination against the minority. Duaa Dhainy, a researcher at the Berlin-based European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR), said al-Manasif could be executed “at any moment.”

“Our organization has received information that the Supreme Court has issued a final ruling ordering his execution,” she told AFP. According to Dhainy, two people were executed in 2025 for crimes they allegedly committed as minors.

Saudi Arabia has executed 190 people so far this year, including 89 Saudi nationals and 116 people convicted of drug trafficking, among them 80 foreigners, according to an AFP tally.

Amnesty International ranked Saudi Arabia third worldwide in the number of executions between 2022 and 2025, behind China and Iran. Riyadh maintains that the death penalty is necessary to preserve public order and says it is imposed only after all appeals have been exhausted.