Video is at the end of the article 

Two Canadian brothers held in Saudi Arabia in connection to a schoolyard brawl that left one youth dead fear they could be executed for a crime they say they didn’t commit, according to a newspaper report.

Mohamed Kohail, 22, and his 16-year-old brother Sultan — both of Palestinian origin  — say they were coerced into confessing their guilt for the murder of a Syrian youth last January.

16 year old Sultan, who was attending a school popular among non-Saudi Arabs in Jeddah, had been threatened by a group of school peers after being accused of insulting a Syrian girl he knew from a Muslim school in Montreal, who, like the Kohail brothers, had subsequently returned to Saudi Arabia. . His brother Kohail and another friend came to the school to defend Sultan from the threats, which included that he was going to be kidnapped.

There are different versions as to what exactly happened next. According to one Arabic newspaper, Okaz, a brawl erupted between a group of Palestinians and Syrians.  “As the physical attack intensified, one of the Palestinians grabbed a Syrian boy named Monther, punched him violently and hit his head against the school yard fence. Monther fell on the ground and died instantly,” said the newspaper.

In an interview with Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail, via a cellphone from inside a Saudi prison, Kohail said Saudi police forced him to confess to punching the Syrian boy. “I didn’t touch anyone. There were 13 people who were beating me up. … They used knives and sticks and bricks,” he told the newspaper. Kohail claims he suffered injuries to his shoulder, ribs and eyes, and broke his front teeth in the brawl. Kohail said police arrested him as he was being treated at hospital and transferred him to Salamah police station, where they beat him into a confession.

“There was a policeman who told me, you have to sign, because if you sign the papers, you will get out” of prison. Kohail said the policeman originally told him he risked little because the Syrian boy was still alive but after signing the confession, the man said the boy had died and that he was going to be charged with murder. “It’s going to be death for now. That is what the investigators asked from the court,” Kohail told The Globe.“I’m afraid of everything,….I really want to go back to Canada now. I like everything in Canada.”

His 16 year old brother Sultan, who reportedly suffered a broken leg while in Saudi custody, is currently being held in a youth detention centre. The boys’ father, Ali, told The Globe he is convinced that both his sons are “100 per cent” innocent. The family returned to Saudi Arabia when Kohail’s older sister became ill. As the Kohails are Palestinian, they never filed for Saudi citizenship even though all of the children were born there. In 2005, they were all granted Canadian citizenship.

The fate of two Canadian brothers imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, who could face beheading is sparking a vigorous debate in the Arab news media. The detention of Mohamed and Sultan was a leading story on the website of Al-Arabiya, a popular Dubai-based Arabic TV outlet, attracting more than 100 comments. While some praised Canada’s insistence on defending its citizens abroad, most backed the Saudi authorities and said that Canada should respect the Saudi justice system. “It’s the Saudis’ right to execute him,” one reader wrote in Arabic. “Too bad, Canada. Hard luck.” “They must be executed,” said another. Many of the comments were critical of Canadian diplomatic efforts to assure consular access, centering on the fact that Saudi Arabia is governed by Islamic laws, and that those laws should be applied regardless of citizenship. If the accused were Indian or Pakistani, one reader said, nobody would care. “Regardless of the killer’s citizenship … they deserve the death penalty and no mercy.” . Other readers praised Canada’s commitment to its citizens, particularly because the Kohails are of Palestinian origin.

The youths lived with their family on Montreal’s West Island between 2000 and 2006 and became citizens. Last year, the family returned to Jeddah and Sultan began attending Edugates International School, where the brawl erupted on Jan. 13. It resulted in the death of Munzer Haraki, a Syrian youth.

Thursday, The Globe and Mail obtained a copy of a cellphone video of the battle from a friend of the Kohail family. The video lasts just over one minute and shows the extent of the melee on a street outside the school, as a dozen youths trade punches and kicks, while younger pupils look on and a couple of teachers try in vain to break it up. Screaming and the sound of car horns from passing traffic can be heard in the background.

The grainy, jumpy video includes some images of serious fighting, including one of a young man kicking another squarely in the face. Contacted by cellphone at the Jeddah prison where he is being held, Mohamed Kohail said that he was the victim in that particular incident and that the boy in the black T-shirt delivering the kick was Munzer Haraki, the Syrian youth who later died. The Globe and Mail was unable to independently corroborate the identity of either the youth who delivered the kick or the youth who received the blow. Mohamed said he was initially attacked by Abdulrahman Haraki, Raneem’s brother, whom he then pinned to the ground. “I hugged him from the back and went with him to the floor,” he said.

It’s while Mohamed is on top of Abdulrahman that the youth in the black T-shirt delivers a kick to Mohamed’s face. Mohamed said the fight continued after the end of the video but he had no explanation for what caused Munzer’s death, insisting that he never raised his hand against the boy who died. “I don’t know who hit Munzer,” he said.

Mohamed said that he did not know Raneem himself and that Sultan had never insulted the girl, who was described as about 18. According to Mohamed, Raneem did not even accuse Sultan of insulting her directly. Rather, Raneem was told by another girl that Sultan had called her a “bitch,” sparking the dispute. 

On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia beheaded two Ethiopians for murder and armed robbery, bringing the total number of executions so far this year to 76, more than double the number for all of 2006.

In prison, Mohamed said that despite his allegations of abuse on the part of the guards, his need for asthma medication and a fainting spell in the washroom several weeks ago, he still has not received any medical attention. “Here, if you die, they bring a doctor. But if you don’t die, they don’t bring a doctor.”

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: 

Saudi Arabia is a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and has undertaken not to execute any offenders who were children when they committed the offence. Saudi Arabia applies the death penalty for a wide range of offences. Court proceedings fall far short of international standards for fair trial, and take place behind closed doors.

Defendants are rarely allowed formal representation by a lawyer, and in many cases are not informed of the progress of legal proceedings against them. They may be convicted solely on the basis of confessions obtained under duress,
torture or deception.

In January 2006 the Saudi Arabian authorities told the Committee on the Rights of the Child (which monitors states’ implementation of the CRC) that no one had been executed for offences committed when they were under 18 years of age since the CRC came into force in the country, in February 1996. The Committee urged the authorities to ensure that no child offenders were sentenced to death.  Saudi Arabia practice execution by beheading with sword in public. 

SCE Campaign call on Saudi Arabia to take the necessary steps to halt the imposition of death sentences against child offenders, as outlined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Saudi Arabia is a state party.

SCE Campaign also calls on Canadian Government to officially object to the Saudi Regime and United Nation against the execution of its child citizen. 

RECOMMENDED ACTION: 

Please send a letter aasking the Saudi leaders to exercise their powers to commute the death sentences of Sultan Kohail and other children on death row in Saudi Arabia: 
King Abdullah Bin ‘Abdul ‘Aziz Al-Saud
The Custodian of the two Holy Mosques
Office of His Majesty The King
Royal Court
Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Salutation: Your Majesty

His Royal Highness Prince Naif bin ‘Abdul ‘Aziz Al-Saud
Minister of the Interior
Ministry of the Interior
P.O. Box 2933
Airport Road
Riyadh 11134
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Fax: 011 966 1 403 1185
011 966 1 403 3614
Salutation: Your Royal Highness

His Royal Highness Prince Saud al-Faisal bin ‘Abdul ‘Aziz Al-Saud
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Nasseriya Street
Riyadh 11124
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Fax: 011 966 1 403 0645
Salutation: Your Royal Highness

COPY TO : EMBASSY OF SAUDI ARABIA IN YOUR COUNTRY