Saudi Arabia has executed a man for crimes he was alleged to have committed when he was just 14 years old, despite having formally ended the death penalty for crimes committed by minors in 2020.

Hassan Zaki al-Faraj, 29, was executed without notice on 17 October for taking part in protests over the kingdom’s treatment of its Shia majority when he was just a child.

He was executed alongside four other men from the Eastern Province convicted in the same case – and human rights groups warn that more youth “offenders” are still waiting on death row.

While in custody, Faraj was subjected to “severe acts of torture”, held in solitary confinement for long periods, and denied communication with the outside world, according to MENA Rights Group.

His execution comes despite the regime, which has spent billions trying to transform its reputation for rights abuses in recent years, scrapping the death penalty for crimes committed by minors in 2020.

Jeed Basyouni, head of MENA death penalty projects at Reprieve, a London-based human rights legal action NGO, told The Independent: “Saudi Arabia’s claim to have abolished capital punishment for childhood crimes was always a lie, but they have now abandoned all pretense.”

She urged the British government to now intervene to save the life of another man at risk of execution for his alleged participation in a protest when he was a child.

Youssef al-Manasif, now 30, faces imminent execution for his alleged participation in protests about the treatment of Shia Muslims when he was just 15 years old, rights groups have warned.

He was arrested and charged in 2017 with numerous crimes including participating in riotous gatherings that affect the unity and stability of the Kingdom, joining a terrorist cell, financing terrorism, selling narcotic pills to security men, and stirring up sedition.

But Reprieve, which campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty, says he was tortured and coerced into signing a false confession and only met his state-appointed lawyer in 2022, five years after the arrest.

Manasif and Faraj were both sentenced to death in November 2022, more than two years after the law changed.

“These are nights of terror for Youssef al-Manasif and his family, thinking that he will be executed next,” said Ms Basyouni.

“After seeing what happened to Jalal al-Labbad, Abdullah al-Derazi, Ali al-Subaiti and Hassan Zaki al-Faraj, is it any wonder that Youssef is terrified, fearing the next sunrise will be his last?”

“Youssef was 15 when Arab Spring protests swept his home town of Qatif, and by all accounts he stayed at home, only to be arrested years later for being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said.

“There is nothing normal about executing people for allegedly taking part in demonstrations when they were children – the Kingdom’s international partners must stop pretending that this is fine and urgently intervene to prevent Youssef’s execution.”

Saudi Arabia carries out most of its capital punishment with beheadings and is the only country to still use the method. The death penalty has been handed down for crimes from murder to adultery, “practicing sorcery” and blasphemy.

The kingdom formally ended the death penalty for crimes committed by minors in 2020. But rights groups say the practice continues regardless.

Ms Basyouni said the charity had observed a “horrific pattern” of young men being accused of attending protests as teenagers, tortured into making false confessions to terror offences, and then sentenced to death and executed.

The kingdom carried out 347 executions in 2025, marking a new high for the Middle Eastern nation, following a record-breaking 345 executions in 2024, according to the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR).

The majority of executions carried out last year were for crimes that failed to meet the standard for the international legal threshold of a “most serious crime”, and were mostly related to drug offences.

Amnesty International reported in June that the Saudi authorities had already executed nearly 100 people this year.

Ms Basyouni said the UK and Saudi Arabia’s other international partners must urgently intervene to prevent Youssef al-Manasif’s execution. She pointed to a precedent where intervention by the UK government reportedly led to three child defendants being spared execution.

“Strong diplomatic intervention from the FCDO could save Youssef’s life,” she said.

In 2021, Saudi Arabia agreed to commute the death sentences of three men for crimes they had allegedly committed as minors, resentencing them to 10 years in prison.

The Independent revealed in 2016, however, that the British government left Saudi Arabia off a list of 30 countries to be challenged over their continued use of the death penalty.

Rights groups expressed concern at the time that it was to safeguard billions of pounds in defence contracts and security co-operation.

Joey Shea, senior Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch, warned that al-Manasif was “at serious risk of execution” following the supreme court’s decision.

He added: “The execution of Hassan al-Faraj is unconscionable compounded by alleged torture-tainted evidence and a well-documented record of unfair trials.”

The Independent contacted the British Foreign Office and the Saudi Ministry of Justice for comment.