Monday, 08 February 2021_The government of Saudi Arabia has commuted to 10 years death penalties given to three young protesters for alleged offences they committed when he were minors.
One of the prisoners, Ali al-Nimr, was sentenced to death over his alleged role in anti-regime protests in the country's Eastern Province in February 2012 when he was 17 years old. He is the nephew of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Saudi cleric who had called for reforms and was executed by the Riyadh regime in January 2016.
The Specialized Criminal Court had sentenced to death Nimr along with Dawood al-Marhoun and Abdullah al-Zaher, 17 and 15, after they were arrested, .
Saudi Arabia's state-backed Human Rights Commission said on Sunday that Nimr's sentence, who has served more than nine years in jail since his arrest, has been commuted, adding that the two others’ were commuted in November 2020.
In all three cases, it added, time served would apply and they are set to be freed in 2022.
"Freedom soon, God willing," Nimr's mother said in a Facebook post celebrating the news.
Saudi Center for International Communications (CIC) has not yet responded to a request for comment.
The commuting of sentences has been made after the Saudi public prosecutor more than five months ago ordered a review of the death penalties issued against the three young men.
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