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| Abdullah al-Zaher was tortured and forced to make a confession, his family say. |
The family of a teenage protester who faces beheading in Saudi Arabia have come forward in public for the first time to plead for his life.
The father of Abdullah al-Zaher, 19, called on the world to help before it is too late and his son is executed in the kingdom along with a reported 51 other people.
“Please help me save my son from the imminent threat of death. He doesn’t deserve to die just because he participated in a protest rally,” Hassan al-Zaher told the Guardian.
Arrested in March 2012, just shy of his 16th birthday, after participating in protests in Saudi Arabia’s eastern Shia-dominated province, Zaher was charged with “harbouring” protesters, participating in demonstrations and chanting slogans, setting fire to a car and throwing Molotov cocktails.
His family and the death penalty campaign group Reprieve allege that Zaher was tortured, saying that after his arrest Saudi security forces beat him with wire iron rods, forced a confession from him and did not allow him to speak to his family or a lawyer. » | Shiv Malik | Thursday, December 17, 2015
