Ali Mohammed Baqir al-Nimr ( ar, علي محمد باقر النمر; born 20 December 1994) is a

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

n political prisoner who participated in the

Saudi Arabian protests Saudi may refer to: * Saudi Arabia * Saudis, people from Saudi Arabia * Saudi culture The cultural setting of Saudi Arabia is greatly influenced by the Arab and Islamic culture. The society is in general deeply religious, conservative, tradit ...

during the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in T ...

as a teenager. He was arrested in February 2012 and sentenced to death in May 2014, having previously awaited ratification of his sentence by King

Salman of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, سلمان بن عبد العزیز آل سعود, , ; born 31 December 1935) is King of Saudi Arabia, reigning since 2015, and served as Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia from 2015 to 2022. The 25th son of Ki ...

, which was to be carried out by

beheading Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the i ...

and

crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...

respectively. Ali's trial was considered unfair by Professor of Human Rights Law

Christof Heyns Christoffel Hendrik Heyns (10 January 1959 – 28 March 2021) was a Professor of Human Rights Law, Director of the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa at the University of Pretoria and a member of the United Nations Human ...

, and

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

, as well as French President

François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. He previously was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) from 1997 to 2008, Mayor of Tulle from ...

and Prime Minister

Manuel Valls Manuel Carlos Valls Galfetti (, , ; born 13 August 1962) is a French-Spanish politician who has served as a Barcelona city councillor from 2019 to 2021. He served as Prime Minister of France from 2014 until 2016 under president François Hol ...

, who called for the execution to be stopped. Ali is the nephew of Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, who was one of the 47 executed citizens during the 2016 Saudi Arabian mass execution. Ali's death sentence is presumed to have been overturned in April 2020, following several announcements from the Saudi government that people convicted as minors under 18 years of age were not to be executed and he was finally released from prison on October 27, 2021.

Background, arrest, and sentencing

Ali participated in the 2011–12 Saudi Arabian protests during the

. According to a court judgment, he "encouraged pro-democracy protests using a

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...

smartphone". He was arrested on 14 February 2012. According to his father, the arrest was carried out by

secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of a ...

ramming into him with their vehicle on a moonless night, resulting in multiple fractures and other injuries. Ali was hospitalised for several days. He was detained at a General Directorate of Investigations (GDI) prison in

Dammam Dammam ( ar, الدمّام ') is the fifth-most populous city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca, and Medina. It is the capital of the Eastern Province. With a total population of 1,252,523 as of 2020. The judicial and administrative ...

. He stated that he was repeatedly and severely

tortured Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

during his detention. On 27 May 2014, Ali was sentenced to death on charges of participation in anti-government demonstrations, having a weapon and using violence. His appeals to the Saudi Arabian

Specialized Criminal Court The Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) ( ar, المحكمة الجزائية المتخصصة) is a non-Sharia court created in Saudi Arabia in 2008 that tries suspected terrorists and human rights activists. On 26 June 2011, the court started tri ...

and

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

were rejected. Before April 2020, Ali was awaiting ratification by King Salman, after which his sentence of

and

would be carried out.

Dawoud al-Marhoon Dawoud al-Marhoon is a Saudi Arabian protester who participated in the Saudi Arabian protests during the Arab Spring as a teenager. He was arrested on May 22, 2012 and was sentenced to death in September 2014, after which he was held in prison ...

, who had also been arrested as a 17-year-old in 2012 during the Eastern Province protests, was also sentenced to death by beheading in early October 2015. He was tortured during his detention and was convicted on the basis of a forced confession. , Ali was still on

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...

, although the Saudi government has announced that the death penalty will no longer be applied to people convicted as minors, thus tentatively overturning his death sentence.

Subsequent events and tentative pardon

Amnesty International said that the trial was

unfair Unfair may refer to: * Double Taz and Double LeBron James in multiverses ''fair''; unfairness or injustice * ''Unfair'' (drama), Japanese television series * '' Unfair: The Movie'' * Unfair (song), a song by South Korean boy group EXO