Saudi Arabia ends death sentence for minors

ISTANBUL

Saudi Arabia has abolished death sentence for crimes committed by minors, the semi-official Saudi Human Rights Commission said.

"The President of the Human Rights Commission, Awwad Alawwad, welcomes the royal decree ending the application of the death penalty for individuals convicted of crimes committed while they were minors," the commission said in a Twitter post on late Sunday.

The death penalty will be replaced with 10 years in a juvenile detention facility.

"The [royal] decree helps us in establishing a more modern penal code," Alawwad said.

He noted that the decree came a day after the kingdom abolished flogging as a criminal punishment.

A recent report by Amnesty International stated that Saudi Arabia executed 184 people in 2019.

* Writing by Mahmoud Barakat