Mustafa bin Hashim bin Isa al-Darwish

SAUDI ARABIA: YOUNG MAN ACCUSED OF PARTICIPATING IN REBELLION EXECUTED

June 17, 2021:

Saudi Arabia on 15 June 2021 executed a young man who was convicted on charges stemming from his alleged participation in an anti-government rebellion by minority Shiites. A leading rights group said his trial, however, was “deeply flawed.”
It was unclear whether Mustafa bin Hashim bin Isa al-Darwish, 26, was executed for crimes committed as a minor, according to Amnesty International. The rights group said he was detained in 2015 for alleged participation in riots between 2011 and 2012. The official charge sheet does not specify the dates his alleged crimes took place, meaning he could have been 17 at the time, or just turned 18.
The government maintains al-Darwish was convicted and executed for crimes committed above the age of 19, though no specific dates for his alleged crimes have been given.
Last year, the kingdom halted its practice of executing people for crimes committed as a minor.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement he was executed after being found guilty of participating in the formation of an armed terrorist cell to monitor and target to kill police officers, attempting to kill police officers, shooting at police patrols and making Molotov cocktails to target police.
Other charges included allegations al-Darwish participated in armed rebellion against the ruler and provoking chaos and sectarian strife. The crimes allegedly transpired in the Eastern Province, where most Saudi oil is concentrated and home to a significant indigenous Shiite population. The execution was carried out in Dammam, the province's administrative capital.
At the height of Arab Spring uprisings across the region, the kingdom experienced unrest among Saudi Shiite youth who took to the Eastern Province's impoverished streets of Qatif. They demanded jobs, better opportunities and an end to discrimination by the kingdom's ultraconservative state-backed Sunni institutions and clerics.
Amnesty International said al-Darwish, who was arrested when he was 20, was placed in solitary confinement, held incommunicado for six months and denied access to a lawyer until the beginning of his trial two years later by the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh, established to try terrorism cases.
The Supreme Court upheld al-Darwish's death sentence.
Amnesty International said his case was then referred to the Presidency of State Security, which is overseen directly by the royal court and over which Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wields immense power. The Saudi monarch, King Salman, ratifies executions, most of which are carried out by beheading.