Jawad Qureiris is the third son of a known dissident Saudi family. He and his family have regularly participated in demonstrations and protests against the treatment of Shiites in al-Qatif. Jawad’s brother, Reda Qureiris, was arrested in 2014 and later sentenced to 12 years in prison. Three months later, his brother Murtaja Qureiris was arrested at the age of 13 and faced the death penalty. He became the youngest political prisoner against whom the Public Prosecution Office demanded the death penalty. In the end, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. In 2018, his father Abdullah Qureiris was arbitrarily detained after being summoned to the police station. He remained in detention until April 2021, despite his deteriorating health condition. Jawad’s older brother, Ali Qureiris, was killed by security forces during protests in 2011.
In 2011 and 2012, Jawad Qureiris participated in demonstrations to protest against the treatment of the Shiite minority in al-Qatif and the funerals of the victims who were killed by government forces during protests.
On January 1, 2021, he was brutally arrested in Al-Qatif by armed forces. Since then, he has been subjected to severe acts of torture, put in solitary confinement and was denied communication with the outside world for prolonged periods of time.
In May 2022, his trial began before the Specialised Criminal Court. He faced several charges related to his participation in demonstrations, marches, and funerals. At least one of the charges relates to acts he had committed while he was still fifteen and sixteen years old, namely attending funerals of victims.
On November 5, 2022, the Specialised Criminal Court issued a Ta’azir death sentence against Jawad Qureiris as part of its discretionary power to do so. He was found guilty of charges relating to acts allegedly committed when he was a minor. On 6 November 2022, the Specialised Criminal Court of Appeal upheld the sentence. The case is now pending before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court may either grant a retrial or uphold the death sentence with a final decision, which would mean that he would be at risk of imminent execution. He is currently detained in Dammam prison.
On June 14, 2023, MENA Rights Group and the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights file a Request for Opinion to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, asking to recognise the arbitrariness of his detention and urge the Saudi authorities to release him or at least commute the sentence to a less severe one.
On November 15, 2024, the UN WGAD issued its Opinion No. 71/2024, where it determined that Qureiris had been arbitrarily deprived of his liberty “without a proper basis in law” and in violation of his rights to a fair trial and to non-discrimination. Furthermore, the Working Group found that he was arrested and charged on the basis of acts that fell within his rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association “guaranteed under articles 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. Additionally, the UN WGAD determined that the Saudi authorities violated the Convention on the Rights of the Child, of which Saudi Arabia is a State Party, as there is a risk that he was “detained and sentenced to death based on acts committed prior to the age of 18 years.”
