A last-minute plea for Saudi Arabia to waive the execution of a child demonstrator due to be beheaded and crucified after taking part in a democracy protest, was led by Socialist and Democrat MEPs in the European Parliament on Thursday 8 October.
 
The 'urgency resolution' co-proposed by S&D foreign affairs coordinator Richard Howitt MEP, called on Saudi King Salman to pardon Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, who was sentenced to death in August, despite being only seventeen years old when he was arrested.
 
European assurances about respect for human rights in counter-terrorism cooperation have been breached, whilst a proposed British Government contract with the Saudi prison service makes his own country complicit in the case, according to Richard Howitt MEP who is a member of the British Labour delegation.
 
S&D MEP Richard Howitt said:
 
"Ali al-Nimr was arrested and tortured for being part of the Arab Spring. It must not be allowed to die and he must not be allowed to die.
 
"Last year in this chamber I spoke on the agreement on counter-terrorism between the European Union and Saudi Arabia, and this Parliament voted that it must be subject to respect for human rights.
 
"Today all reports suggest that this boy has been sentenced to death as a terrorist, based on evidence that has been withheld, a confession signed under duress and a trial which was held in secret.
 
"It is sickening that my own country's government is bidding to provide services for the very same Saudi prison service which will be responsible for inflicting the death penalty.
 
"Britain and our European partners want good relations with Saudi Arabia, but today we must ask if the treatment of Ali al-Nimr is consistent with the assurances given about the relationship we have?
 
"If those promises are to mean anything, they must mean Ali's life.
 
"Ali was a child. Let him be a man."