Dawoud al-Marhoon is a Saudi Arabian protester 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 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 while awaiting ratification of his sentence by King
Abdullah and then King
Salman
Salman may refer to:
People
* Salman (name), people with the name
Places in Iran
* Salman, Khuzestan, a village in Khuzestan Province
* Salman, alternate name of Deh-e Salman, Lorestan, a village in Lorestan Province
* Salman, Razavi Khorasan, a ...
.
Early life
Dawoud was born in
Al-Awamiyah and attended Altarfih al-Sahil High School. He has a mother and a younger sister, but his father died when he was young. As a teenager, Dawood was sociable and popular. He loved playing
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
and
computer games
A personal computer game, also known as a PC game or computer game, is a type of video game played on a personal computer (PC) rather than a video game console or arcade machine. Its defining characteristics include: more diverse and user-deter ...
. He excelled in his studies and dreamed of pursuing his love for technology and computers by studying a degree in
engineering.
Arab Spring and arrest
Dawoud participated in the
2011–12 Saudi Arabian protests during the
Arab Spring. Originally, in March 2012, he was questioned by Saudi police and asked to be an informant and report details about his fellow protesters. After he refused, Saudi security forces arrested him from the Dammam Central Hospital, where he was undergoing treatment for an eye injury sustained in a traffic accident. Saudi forces surrounded the hospital and arrested him as he prepared for surgery.
At the time of Dawoud's arrest, he was 17. He was one of three minors (
Ali al-Nimr and Abdullah al-Zaher, 16 and 17 respectively) arrested for offences committed while participating in anti-government protests in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province in 2012. All three were sentenced to death by the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) in 2014 after what have been characterized as "flawed trials". During his arrest, Dawoud was allegedly forced to sign a confession, which was later relied upon to convict him. According to
Reprieve, he was arrested without a warrant and tortured. Legal conditions of Dawoud's case included refusal by authorities of regular access to his lawyer.
Governments, activists, and human rights organizations all around the world condemned the Saudi government for the three boys' arrest, detainment and sentences.
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 ...
led a campaign for authorities not to execute them.
After the death penalty for crimes committed by minors was revoked by royal decree in 2020,
in August that same year, the public prosecutor ordered a review of Dawoud, Ali and Abdullah's sentences.
Finally, in February 2021, the Saudi Arabian Specialized Criminal Court commuted the death sentence of Dawoud, Ali and Abdullah and re-sentenced them to 10-year prison terms inclusive of time served, meaning that they could be released in 2022.
See also
*
Human rights in Saudi Arabia
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Marhoon, Dawoud
1995 births
Living people
Saudi Arabian human rights activists
Saudi Arabian prisoners sentenced to death
Saudi Arabian torture victims
Saudi Arabian dissidents
People of the 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests