Saudi Arabia Trying To Execute And Possibly Crucify Teen Who Participated In Protest When He Was 10 Years Old: Report
The Saudi Arabian government is trying to execute an 18-year-old for participating in an anti-government protest when he was 10 years old.
Saudi authorities are looking to execute Murtaja Qureiris, 18, who Saudi authorities arrested at the age of 13 for participating in dissident protest and other forms of rebellion against the government, CNN reported.
He may receive one of the harshest execution sentences, including possible crucifixion, as punishment for his alleged crimes against the government, according to CNN.
“Though the prosecution has not held Qureiris responsible for any loss of life, CNN has learned that it is seeking to impose the harshest form of the death penalty, which may include crucifixion or dismemberment after execution,” the CNN report reads.
Exclusive: When Murtaja Qureiris was 10, he led protests demanding rights for Saudi Arabia’s Shia minority. Now, at the age of 18, he faces the death penalty https://t.co/fYOaZ3tL89
— CNN (@CNN) June 7, 2019
He is said to have participated in a protest in 2011 where he and 30 other children rode their bikes through the a city in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province and protested for human rights in Saudi Arabia, according to the report.
He reportedly shouted, “The people demand human rights!” through a megaphone as he rode through the streets, CNN reported.
Other charges include an incident where he allegedly through a Molotov cocktail at a police station in Awamiya while riding on the back of his brother Ali Qureiris’s motorcycle as he drove. Police reportedly killed Ali Qureiris during a 2012 protest, according to CNN.
Murtaja Qureiris was also reportedly charged with protesting the Saudi government at his own brother’s funeral.
Saudi prosecutors are pushing the death penalty in Murtaja Qureiris’s case, claiming that his actions in organizing dissident protest as a 10-year-old during the Arab Spring made him a part of “an extremist terror group,” according to CNN.
If Murtaja Qureiris is executed, he would be the oldest of four teenagers to be executed in Saudi Arabia this year.
Since his arrest as a 13-year-old in 2014, Murtaja Qureiris has been detained by Saudi authorities, 15 months of which was spent in solitary confinement, according to CNN.
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