Ali al-Nimr in a photo taken for his ID card

SAUDI ARABIA: THREE YOUTHS GET PRISON SENTENCE INSTEAD OF DEATH

February 8, 2021:

Three young Saudi men who faced death sentences for acts they were accused of committing as minors have been handed a 10-year prison sentence instead, the Saudi Human Rights Commission said on 7 February 2021.
Ali al-Nimr, Dawood al-Marhoun and Abdullah al-Zaher, youth from Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority, were detained separately on charges stemming from their participation in anti-government Shiite protests over discrimination that rocked the country’s eastern province in 2011-2012.
Al-Nimr, the nephew of prominent opposition cleric Shiekh Nimr al-Nimr, whose execution sparked Shiite demonstrations from Bahrain to Pakistan, was arrested in 2012 at age 17, according to Human Rights Watch. He was sentenced to death by the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh, which handles terrorism trials.
Al-Marhoun was 17 and al-Zaher was 15 when they were swept up in the government’s crackdown on Shiite protests, and denied access to lawyers during their protracted pre-trial detention, the New York-based watchdog previously reported.
The court would credit time served, Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Commission announced, setting the release date of all three men for 2022.
Al-Nimr’s father Mohammed welcomed the news on Twitter, describing the change in sentence as a direct order from King Salman. The government’s communications office did not respond to a request for comment.