JEDDAH – The higher authorities have instructed the Ministry of Interior and the Presidency of State Security to count all the final verdicts issued by various courts to award death penalty to those minors who were under the age of 18 at the time of committing the crime or at the time of their arrest. The Public Prosecution has been instructed to stop enforcing death penalty verdicts, in addition to filing petitions to review the death penalty verdicts. Okaz/Saudi Gazette has learnt from well informed sources that it was clarified in the royal order that minor convicts facing execution shall have the right to file review petitions. According to the decree, issued by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, Saudi Arabia will no longer apply death penalty on individuals convicted of crimes committed while they were minors. The decree stipulates that any individual who received a death sentence for crimes committed while he or she is a minor can no longer face execution. The Public Prosecution has been directed to make necessary modifications in all lawsuits filed against juvenile defendants, while emphasizing that the maximum penalty for minors is 10-year prison term in all cases, whether the crime is one or multiple. Similar will be the case with more than one lawsuits filed under various provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law in connection with a single crime. The new rule is applicable to all cases that are under various phases of trial. Those who have already served 10 years of imprisonment in murder cases will be released. The royal decree also stressed that the provisions contained in the new clauses should not prejudice with the procedures stipulated in the provisions of the Law to Combat Terror and its financing, and that the legal committee would decide on issues involving terrorism related cases against the accused minors.
