23 year old Munir al-Adam has been sentenced to death for alleged “attacks on police” during protests in the predominately Shi’ite Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia in late 2011.

Al-Adam is partly blind and was already partially deaf at the time when the Saudi forces arrested him, however, he is now fully deaf in one ear because of police brutality while in custody.

Al-Adam’s family say his confession to any crime was extracted under torture.

“Munir Adam’s appalling case illustrates how the Saudi authorities are all too happy to subject the most vulnerable people to the swordsman’s blade – including juveniles and people with disabilities,” said Reprieve’s Death Penalty Team Director Maya Foa.

“Like so many others, Munir was arrested for allegedly attending protests, and tortured into a ‘confession’ – he was beaten so badly that he lost his hearing. It’s a scandal that Munir now faces beheading on the basis of a bogus statement that he has since recanted,” she added.

Saudi Arabia has recently been re-elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council.