JEDDAH, 26 April 2008 — The lawyer representing the father of Mueed, a boy who was executed at the age of 16 in Jizan last year after being found guilty of a brutal crime he committed when he was 13, says the report filed by the local Department of Public Security amounts to an admission of guilt that they did not follow proper procedures in the handling of case.
The execution of a minor also violates a UN charter on the protection of children that Saudi Arabia voluntarily signed 12 years ago.
The Court of Grievances has postponed the next hearing in the case by six weeks from April 6. Hussein Al-Hakami has filed a complaint with the court alleging that Jizan police mishandled the case of his son, who was a minor when he allegedly abducted, raped and killed a child, who was reportedly three years old.
Abdullah Al-Zmami, an attorney from Al-Zmami Law Firm who is representing Al-Hakami, said that police admitted to handling the case completely without involving the Prosecution and Investigation Board (the country’s equivalent of a district attorney) or ordering a forensic investigation to find physical evidence for the crime.
“The fact is police arrested, investigated, interrogated and detained the minor,” said Al-Zmami. “Forced a confession out of him and deprived him of his legal rights.”
The crux of the current dispute between the lawyer and the local authorities lies in who had jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute the case. According to the lawyer, the Jizan police are claiming that an Interior Ministry law gave police authority to play the role of prosecutor in situations where the Prosecution and Investigation Board are not available to do so. He did not elaborate, except to emphasize the keystone of his argument: that police did not follow Saudi law in the handling of crimes involving minors.
Al-Zmami said that it is illegal for police to detain a minor, defined as someone under the age of 15, although according to the Jizan police chief, in this instance, they determined whether Mueed was a minor based on the presence or absence of pubic hair. The lawyer earlier stated that the judge in the case, Ali Mashour Al-Homadi, denies having ruled whether the boy was an adult or a minor.
The lawyer also said that according to the Saudi law a medical examination should have been conducted to determine the boy’s age and mental and physical states. According to Saudi law a minor cannot be held accountable for a crime, he said, adding that it is also illegal for a uniformed police officer to interrogate a minor. Instead a civilian clothed officer should have interrogated the boy. Police are supposed to turn minors over to juvenile crime specialists.
The father also claims that he was not present during most of these interrogations and he wasn’t even informed on the day his son was executed. Upon arrest the first rule in dealing with minors is that he should have been handed over to the Juvenile center and not detained at any other center.
