Ali Mohammed Baqir al-Nimr was sentenced to death on 27 May 2014. He “confessed” to offences that had taken place when he was 17 years old. The sentence has now been upheld by appeal judges at the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) and by the Supreme Court, according to his family, who have only just learned of the courts’ decisions. The case was sent to the Ministry of Interior in August 2015 for the sentence to be implemented. He is liable to be executed as soon as the King has ratified the sentence.
Ali al-Nimr was sentenced to death on 27 May 2014 by the SCC in Jeddah, for offences that included taking part in demonstrations against the government, attacking the security forces, possessing a machine-gun and armed robbery. The court seems to have based its decision on “confessions” which Ali al-Nimr has said were extracted under torture and other ill-treatment and has refused to look into this allegation.
Ali al-Nimr had been arrested on 14 February 2012, when he was 17 years old, and taken to the General Directorate of Investigations (GDI) prison in Dammam, in the Eastern Province. He was not allowed to see his lawyer and has said that GDI officers tortured him to make him sign a “confession”. He was then taken to a centre for juvenile rehabilitation, Dar al-Mulahaza, and was returned to the GDI prison in Dammam when he turned 18.
Ali al-Nimr is the nephew of a prominent Shi’a cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, from al-Awamiyya in Qatif, eastern Saudi Arabia, who was sentenced to death by the Specialized Criminal Court on 15 October 2014.