On 21 August 2025, the Saudi authorities executed Jalal Labbad. This execution is further proof of the brutal way in which Saudi Arabia takes the lives of those who have had the courage to denounce the repression carried out by the country’s government. Jalal’s execution, however, is doubly serious. He was executed for a crime he committed while still a child. This shows how the Saudi government has broken its promise to stop carrying out such executions and has returned to committing this brutal crime.
Jalal was born in a Shia enclave in eastern Saudi Arabia. In 2011, when the Arab uprisings reached his region, Jalal took part with his family to end discrimination against the Shia population in Saudi Arabia. Jalal was still a minor when the protests took place. On 23 February 2017, the Saudi authorities arrested Jalal without a warrant, forcibly removing him from his home in al-Awamiyah.
Following his arrest, Jalal was placed in solitary confinement and tortured several times by the authorities. This led to him being hospitalised more than once for problems resulting from the torture he suffered and to developing a series of problems stemming from this. However, his trial before the Specialised Criminal Court did not begin until 2019. In this trial, Jalal was charged with a series of crimes, including “participating in demonstrations”, “attending funerals of victims shot by government forces”, “helping to treat and shelter wanted persons who were wounded and with being involved”, and “shooting at and throwing Molotov cocktails at soldiers”.
Another charge brought against Jalal is that he participated in the killing of Judge Mohammed al-Jirani. This crime was committed in 2016, although the judge’s body was only discovered a year later. The murder has long been the subject of debate, and little by little, a list of suspects has been drawn up, which now includes 22 names. Among these, it seems, was Jalal’s, although the Ministry of Interior has not provided any explanation as to the role he may have played in this crime.
However, the fact remains that, as regards the crimes of which Jalal was accused, these had been committed when he was still a minor. Jalal could therefore be tried, but not sentenced to death. Sentencing a person to death for crimes committed as a minor is contrary to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Saudi Arabia is also a signatory. On 31 July 2022, however, Jalal was sentenced to death.
This sentence had a profound impact on everyone who had followed Jalal’s case. For a time, there was even hope that the authorities would not actually carry out the execution because, in 2020, they had issued a decree ending judges’ discretion regarding sentences against minors. The fact that, despite everything, Jalal’s sentence was actually carried out is horrifying. Saudi Arabia has once again shown itself to be a country that has no qualms about breaking its promises and that, in order to suppress freedom of expression, is even willing to kill a person for crimes committed as a child.
Following an episode like this, it is no longer possible to believe the lies that the Saudi government continues to tell. All the promises made about change and progress in the country are falsehoods that serve to cover up the horrific repression taking place there. Jalal’s execution is a heinous crime, and it is terrible to think that, starting with this, the Saudi authorities may continue with the executions of children. These crimes must be strongly condemned, and the stories of Jalal and other young people who have faced or may face the same fate must be told in order to expose the falsehoods of the Saudi government.