Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: An alleged juvenile offender in Yemen has had his execution halted, and his case will now be re-examined by the courts. Another alleged juvenile offender, however, continues to be at imminent risk of execution.
Fuad Ahmed Ali Abdulla had his execution halted on 18 December, a day before his death sentence was due to be carried out and the case will now be re-examined by the courts. Fuad Ahmed Ali Abdulla was sentenced to death after being convicted of a murder he was alleged to have committed while still under 18 years of age. Although the court considered that he was over 18 years old at the time of the alleged crime, it is unclear how it determined this. Amnesty International has been told that his birth certificate states he was born in 1988 and that his alleged crime took place in June 2004, meaning that he would have been 16 or 17 years old at the time and would be around 22 years old now. He is being held in Ta'izz prison, in the south-west of Yemen. Muhammed Taher Thabet Samoum was alleged to have committed a murder in May 2002. He maintains that he is aged around 24 years old, which would have made him around 15 years old at the time of the offence. He does not have a birth certificate. The President of Yemen has ratified his death sentence and he continues to be at imminent risk of execution. He is being held in Ibb prison, in the south-west of Yemen. Amnesty International is aware of at least eight other people who are possible juvenile offenders on death row in Yemen. Yemen is a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which expressly prohibit the execution of juvenile offenders – those convicted of crimes committed when they were under 18 years of age. The application of the death penalty on juvenile offenders is also expressly prohibited in Article 31 of Yemen's Penal Code. Further information