Jalal Labbad

SAUDI ARABIA: MAN EXECUTED OVER PROTESTS HE ATTENDED AS A 16-YEAR-OLD

August 25, 2025:

Saudi Arabia executed Jalal Labbad on 21 August 2025 for crimes allegedly committed when he was under 18 years of age [a child]. Bissan Fakih, Amnesty International’s Middle East Campaigner, said:
“Saudi Arabia’s execution of Jalal Labbad is deplorable and underscores the devastating toll of the authorities’ ruthless use of the death penalty in complete disregard of one of the most absolute prohibitions to its use. The imposition of the death penalty for crimes allegedly committed by people when they were children is prohibited under international human rights law and customary international law.
“His execution is the tragic culmination of a slew of human rights violations at the hands of the Saudi state, from his arbitrary detention to his grossly unfair prosecution and trial. Jalal Labbad was denied access to legal representation during his pre-trial detention and told the court that he had been tortured, beaten up and electrocuted to “confess” his guilt. The court did not investigate the claims of torture and other ill-treatment. This shameful list of violations renders his execution arbitrary under international law.”
“Following Jalal Labbad’s execution, Amnesty International is gravely concerned for the lives of other young men on death row, including Abdullah al-Derazi, for crimes that they allegedly committed when they were under 18 years of age. Al-Derazi, also a member of the country’s Shia minority, also had his sentence upheld in secret and was subjected to a slew of human rights violations.
Jalal Labbad, born on 3 April 1995, was arrested in connection with his participation in protests in 2011 and 2012 against the treatment of Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a minority in Al-Qatif, as well as his attendance at funerals of individuals killed by security forces. On 1 August 2022, the Specialized Criminal Court convicted and sentenced him to death for alleged offences committed when he was 16 and 17 years old.
An appeals court upheld Labbad’s sentence on 4 October 2022.
In October 2023, Amnesty International received credible information that Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court upheld his death sentence in secret.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) concluded that the detention of Jalal Labbad, Abdullah al-Derazi, Yusuf al-Manasif, Jawad Qureiris, and Hassan al-Faraj, is arbitrary. All the young men belong to the Shi’a minority and were below 18 years of age at the time of their alleged offenses. 
The Saudi Human Rights Commission told Amnesty International in a May 2023 letter that ‘the application of the death penalty on juveniles for ta’zir crimes has been completely abolished’. Ta’zir crimes, for which Jalal Labbad was convicted, are crimes for which the death penalty is not mandated under Islamic law.