News broke Friday that the Court of Cassation in Saudi Arabia has upheld the earlier death sentence placed upon Mohamed Kohail and Mehanna Sa’d. Mohamed’s teen-aged brother, Sultan, has yet to be tried in a new case at adult court, following an earlier overturning of a sentence of one year in prison, and 200 lashes. A possible death sentence was opened up in an adult trial.
Mohamed and Mehanna's death sentence now goes to the Supreme Judicial Council for final approval, after which an execution could happen at any time.
The Kohail family lived, and still own a home, in Montreal. They moved to Saudi Arabia only a few years ago to help a sick relative in the early part of a marriage, with the intention of returning to Canada. The younger brother, Sultan, was attacked in January of 2007 by Munzer Al-Haraki when Al-Haraki accused Sultan of insulting his cousin. Al-Haraki arrived at Sultan’s school with a large group of young men carrying electrified rods and chains. Sultan called on his older brother Mohamed to help him out of this situation. Mohamed brought with him his university friend Mehanna Sa’d. The melee that resulted at the school was captured, in part, on a cell phone.
The video is available on the Internet.
In the video there is clear footage of Mohamed Kohail being kicked in the head by Al-Haraki. What happened next is not clear. The defence says that a stone wall collapsed when Al-Haraki and his gang were pushing on it to get at the Kohail brothers. When the wall came down Al-Haraki was caught in the rubble. Unknown at the time, but apparent in the autopsy results, was that Al-Haraki had an underlying heart condition which. His injuries resulted in internal bleeding that caused him to go into cardiac arrest.
The prosecution in the case argued simply that Mohamed, Mehanna and Sultan all beat Al-Haraki to death – despite there being no medical evidence consistent with such a claim.
During Mohamed and Mehanna’s trial, the defence lawyer was barred from attending nearly all of it (The trial consisted of nine sessions, each about 10 minutes long). Mohamed, Mehanna and Sultan were all arrested and, it is alleged, held incommunicado for six weeks during which they were beaten and tortured into confessing to killing Al-Haraki.
Amnesty International has reported regularly on the Saudi death penalty and justice system. Torture is commonplace almost to the point of being routine. International standards require that a fair trial be held for the accused in death penalty cases and international law prohibits the execution of persons for crimes committed when under the age of 18. The Convention Against Torture also expressly prohibits means of punishment such as flogging.
Foreigners also do not fare well in Saudi Arabian prisons – in particular in cases involving the death penalty. Many death penalty crimes are of a special category in Sharia law called qesas or retribution in kind. In a qesa situation, the family of the condemned may choose to forgive the convicted person and can do so in exchange for the payment of diya or blood money. Most such pardons are arranged through the intervention of local officials or the Saudi royal family. Mr Al-Haraki, the father of Munzer Al-Haraki, has already said that the only way he would pardon the Kohail brothers and Mehanna Sa’d, is through the intervention of the King.
Just because Sultan is a juvenile under international law – even laws to which Saudi Arabia is bound – does not mean Sultan could not be executed. This past summer Saudi Arabia beheaded a juvenile offender for a crime committed when he was just 15 years old.
Mohamed and Mehanna are now almost at the end of their legal appeals process. With the Court of Cassation decision to uphold the death sentence the case will go to the Supreme Judicial Council for a final confirmation before enabling a death warrant – after which an execution could happen at any time unless the King himself intervenes.
10 November 2008 12:31 am
Comment by: Kelly
Please don't do this. It is not right , no matter how bad the situation may be.