His case came to light after CNN published an exclusive report in 2019 revealing how Saudi authorities arrested Qureiris when he was 13 years old, three years after he was accused of participating in a bicycle protest during the Arab Spring in 2011 when he was 10 years old.
Four years after his arrest before his appearance in court, and before his 18th birthday, he was brought before the court, and charges and recommendations to sentence him to death were brought against him.
Public Prosecutions claimed that Qureiris belonged to an “extremist terrorist group” and committed acts of violence during the protests, including his alleged assistance in preparing Molotov cocktails. Qureiris denied the accusations against him in their entirety.
And Saudi Arabia announced in 2020 that it would drop the death penalty for people who committed crimes as minors within the framework of the implementation of a royal order.
The sentence of anyone sentenced to death for crimes committed as a minor was thus reduced to a prison sentence of no more than 10 years in a minors rehabilitation facility, according to a statement issued by the Saudi government-backed Human Rights Commission (HRC) at the time.
In 2019, when he was 18, Qureiris was sentenced to prison, although the Saudi government has not announced the charges against him, and a source familiar with the case told CNN at the time that the young man was exempted from the death penalty.
CNN has contacted the Saudi government for comment.
A source familiar with the case told CNN that it was determined in 2019 that Qureiris would leave prison in 2022.
International pressure on Saudi Arabia has escalated, and a number of human rights organizations condemned his arrest after CNN published its report on the Qureiris case, and in 2019 the Austrian parliament voted to close a center for interfaith dialogue supported by the Saudi government, in a move in protest against Qureiris’ arrest.
