Executed teenager's family seeks compensation

Riyadh: The family of a Saudi teenager tried and executed for murder in an apparent violation of a ban on executing minors is seeking compensation of 10 million riyals (Dh9.9 million), their lawyer said on Monday.

The case highlights legal problems in Saudi Arabia, where King Abdullah has unveiled plans to overhaul the court system and formalise what is now an unwritten penal code.

Mueed Al Hakami, 15, was beheaded last July for the murder of a younger boy in 2004 in a village near Jizan in the far south of Saudi Arabia, said lawyer Abdullah Al Zmami.

Al Zmami said a series of procedural violations culminated in Al Hakami's family being told last July during a visit to a youth detention centre that their son, who was only 13 at the time of the crime, had been beheaded.

"The Saudi system says you cannot execute a minor who is less than 15 years [old] at the time of the crime. And if you are between 15 and 18 there is a special court with a 'minors' judge'. This did not happen," Al Zmami said, a day after a Riyadh complaints court began an appeal filed by the family.

"To this day the body has not been delivered to his family and they do not even know the place of burial."