ALQST for Human Rights-Political Prisoners

Personal information

Sex: Male
Marital status: Single
Date of birth: 2000
Place of residence: Al-Awamiyah
Group:

Murtaja Qureiris became one of Saudi Arabia’s youngest ever political prisoners when he was arrested at the age of 13 for taking part in protests promoting the rights of the Shia community when he was just 10 years old.

Arrest and jail information

Prison: Al-Mabaheth (General Investigations Directorate), Dammam
Date of arrest: 20 September 2014
Manner of arrest: Without any warrant, the Saudi authorities arrested him on the King Fahd causeway while travelling with his family to Bahrain.

Trial information

Charges: Throwing Molotov cocktails; conspiring to injure soldiers; participating in a terrorist organisation; and taking part in demonstrations and the funeral procession of his brother Ali Qureiris, who was killed during the 2011 demonstrations.
Court: Specialised Criminal Court (SCC)
Verdict: He was finally sentenced to 12 years in prison, suspended for four years.
Date of verdict: 16 July 2019

Violations

Arbitrary arrest/ detention ,
Enforced disappearance

Violation details

He was arrested when he was still a minor at the age of 13-14 years old.

Timeline

24 June 2022 - He has been released following the expiry of his sentence.
12 February 2020 - He had the 12-year sentence passed on him in June 2019 reduced to 8 years.
16 June 2019 - He was finally sentenced to 12 years in prison, suspended for four years.
May 2017 - When he was still only 16 years old, Qureiris was moved to the Mahabeth adult prison in Dammam.
November 2016 - The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found Qureiris’s arrest and detention to be arbitrary, and called for his immediate release and compensation.
20 September 2014-May 2017 - He was held in detention at the juvenile “social supervision” centre (Dar al-Mulahaza al-Ijtima’iya) in Dammam, where he was initially held in solitary confinement for a month with only one brief family visit; interrogated without a lawyer or legal guardian present; beaten; and forced to sign confessions.
20 September 2014 - At the age of 13, on a family trip to Bahrain, Qureiris was arrested without a warrant by border police for taking part in political protests in the Eastern Province in 2011, during the Arab Spring, when he was only 10.