"Look at Us with a Merciful Eye"

The 30-page report found that at least 22 individuals have been sentenced to death despite evidence that they were under age 18 at the time of their alleged crimes. In the last five years, Yemen has executed at least 15 young men and women who said they were under 18 at the time of their offense. Most recently, on December 3, 2012, a government firing squad in Sanaa executed Hind al-Barti, a young woman convicted of murder whose birth certificate indicated she was 15 at the time of her alleged crime.

UPDATE:

On February 26, 2013, Bashir Mohammed Ahmed Ali Al-Dihar, whose case is documented in this report, told Human Rights Watch that during his hearing at the appeals court earlier in the month, the judge informed him that his sentence would be commuted to seven years on account of him having been under 18 at the time of the crime. At the time of publication, Bashir’s lawyers had not yet received a copy of the decision.

When Human Rights Watch visited him in Sanaa Central Prison, Bashir told us that he remained concerned that the death penalty might be reinstated upon further appeal to the Supreme Court.