Jalal Labbad Executed For Alleged Crimes As A Baby

On 21 August 2025, Saudi authorities executed Jalal Labbad for crimes allegedly dedicated when he was beneath 18 years of age [a child]. Jalal Labbad, born on 3 April 1995, was arrested in connection along with his participation in protests in 2011 and 2012 in opposition to the remedy of Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a minority in Al-Qatif, in addition to his attendance at funerals of people killed by safety forces. On 1 August 2022, the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) convicted and sentenced him to dying for alleged offences dedicated when he was 16 and 17 years outdated.

NO FURTHER ACTION IS REQUESTED. MANY THANKS TO ALL WHO SENT APPEALS.

On 21 August 2025, Saudi authorities executed Jalal Labbad for crimes allegedly dedicated when he was beneath 18 years of age [a child]. Jalal Labbad was arrested in connection along with his participation in protests in 2011 and 2012 in opposition to the remedy of Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a minority in Al-Qatif, in addition to his attendance at funerals of people killed by safety forces. 

On 1 August 2022, the SCC convicted and sentenced him to dying for alleged offences dedicated when he was 16 and 17 years outdated following a grossly unfair trial that lacked procedural safeguards. He had no entry to authorized illustration throughout his pretrial detention and advised the court docket that he was tortured to “confess”. The court docket didn’t examine his claims of torture and different ill-treatment. 

An appeals court docket upheld Jalal Labbad’s sentence on 4 October 2022. In October 2023, Amnesty International obtained credible info that Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court upheld his dying sentence in secret.

Jalal Labbad’s brother, Fadel Labbad, was executed in 2019. A 3rd brother, Mohammad Labbad, was sentenced to dying in October 2022. Following a retrial, he was sentenced to dying once more in February 2025. 

The authorities have repeatedly imposed dying sentences on members of the Shi’a group as they search to silence dissent in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. While the Shia group contains an estimated 10-12% of the full inhabitants, they accounted for round 42% (120 of 286) of all “terrorism”-related executions between January 2014 and June 2025.

The Saudi Human Rights Commission advised Amnesty International in a May 2023 letter that ‘the application of the death penalty on juveniles for ta’zir crimes has been fully abolished’. Ta’zir crimes, for which Jalal Labbad was convicted, are crimes for which the dying penalty shouldn’t be mandated beneath Islamic legislation.

Thank you to all those that despatched appeals. Jalal Labbad’s execution underscores the devastating toll of the Saudi authorities’ ruthless use of the dying penalty in disregard of some of the absolute prohibitions to its use—in opposition to individuals for crimes they allegedly dedicated as kids. Amnesty International will proceed campaigning for different individuals on dying row in Saudi Arabia for alleged crimes they dedicated as kids.