Cairo: Speaking over a smuggled mobile phone from his prison cell, one of seven Saudis who were to be put to death on Tuesday by crucifixion and firing squad appealed for help to stop the executions.

Nasser Al Qahtani told The Associated Press from Abha General prison Monday that he was arrested for armed robbery as part of 23-member gang that targeted jewellery stores in 2004 and 2005. He said he and the other accused were tortured to confess and had no access to lawyers.

“I killed no one. I didn’t have weapons while robbing the store, but the police tortured me, beat me up and threatened to assault my mother to extract confessions that I had a weapon with me while I was only 15,” he said. “We don’t deserve death.”

A leading human rights group has also appealed to Saudi authorities to stop the executions.

Al Qahtani, now 24, said he and most of the others involved in the robberies were juveniles at the time. They were arrested in 2006. The seven received death sentences in 2009, the Saudi newspaper Okaz reported then.

Last Saturday, Al Qahtani said, the death sentences were ratified and sent to Abha prison. Authorities set Tuesday for the executions. They also determined the methods. The main defendant, Sarhan Al Mashayeh, was to be crucified for three days. The others were to face firing squads.

Al Qahtani faced a judge three times during eight years in detention. He said that the judge didn’t assign a defence lawyer and didn’t listen to complaints of torture. “We showed him the marks of torture and beating, but he didn’t listen,” he said. “I am talking to you now and my relatives are telling me that the ground is prepared for our executions tomorrow,” he said, referring to the place where he will face the firing squad.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Sharia law under which people convicted of murder, rape or armed robbery can be executed, usually by the sword.

Human rights groups have condemned executions in the past, including cases in which people were beheaded and then crucified. In 2009, Amnesty International condemned such an execution as “the ultimate form of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.”

Lamri Chirouf, the Saudi Arabian researcher for Amnesty International, was quoted by CNN in 2009 as saying that crucifixions, or public displays of executed bodies, are used as a tool to deter people from committing crimes.

Abha is located deep in the southwestern province of Asir. Southerners complain about discrimination.

“The verdict is very harsh, given all the circumstances of detention and trial with no access to lawyers, but part of the problem is selectivity,” he said.

The Washington-based Institute of Gulf Affairs, which is campaigning for suspension of the executions of the seven men, said in a statement addressed to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights that “among the reasons for the execution is that they hail from the south, a region that is heavily marginalised...”

Ali Al Ahmad, the head of the institute, said that in Saudi Arabia, people refer to the south as “07, which is derogatory, since it refers to the last area code phone number” in the kingdom.

“The south is very poor, and that is why rebellion comes from there,” he said, “and this is why sentences are harsh,” he said.

Human Rights Watch in a statement on Monday appealed to King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz to halt the executions. It said that there is “strong evidence” that the trials of all seven men violated basic principles of rights to a fair trial.

“It will be outrageous if the Saudi authorities go ahead with these executions,” said Eric Goldstein, Deputy Middle East Director at Human Rights Watch. “It is high time for the Saudis to stop executing child offenders and start observing their obligations under international human rights law.”