MORE CHILD OFFENDERS EXECUTED BY OWNERS OF NEWCASTLE UNITED

On 10th April 2026 Human Rights Organisation ALQST broke the news that Ali al-Subaiti had been executed by Newcastle United’s owners, following a grossly unfair trial convicting him of supposed terrorism offences committed when he was a minor.

His death follows the executions of Abdullah al-Derazi in October 2025 and Jalal al-Labbad in August 2025.

In 2022, the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) asked NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing to highlight the cases of 8 young men imprisoned and sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for crimes alleged to have been committed while they were children. Jamal, Abdullah and Ali were amongst them.

We stood outside St James’ Park holding photos of the young men before the home match against Chelsea - highlighting their oppression at the hands of the club’s ownership. 

ESOHR had assured us that ordinary fans like us could make a difference if we took up individual cases in this way, and it’s something we’ve since been told repeatedly by other human rights organisations. There isn’t access to lawyers, a functioning legal system, or a critical media in Saudi Arabia, so leveraging international pressure to draw attention to the state’s oppression is the most effective means of impacting change.

In March this year Dr Maryam Aldossari told us that Salma al-Shehab would not have been released without the support of rights groups around the world taking up her cause. Salma was released 4 years into a 34 year sentence for tweeting in support of women’s rights, although she still cannot leave Saudi Arabia. The same extreme sensitivity to criticism that led to the Saudi state’s imprisonment of activists can also lead to their release if international pressure is applied effectively.

Before Newcastle United’s ownership changed in October 2021, a number of fans, journalists and MPs promised to engage with these issues.

Newcastle Central MP, Chi Onwurah, is one of a number of local politicians who pledged to retain a critical line on Saudi Arabia:

“If you think the #nufctakeover will stop me criticising the Saudi Regime you don’t know me and you don’t know Newcastle” she tweeted on the takeover’s completion. She also released a statement which read: “I understand the new owners believe this investment is a sign of change and a desire to open up on the part of Saudi Arabia and I hope that is true.”

But since then, we have heard very little from fan groups, journalists, or local politicians on the subject of the abuses committed by Newcastle’s owners.

One of the few occasions a journalist did comment was when Jacob Whitehead wrote an article for The Athletic in July 2023, entitled If the source of Newcastle’s spending makes you uneasy, keep talking about it - The Athletic.

He concluded by saying “So, the one suggestion I will make is: if you feel strongly, talk. Feel free to be open, even if you do not yet quite know your position, even nearly two years on. These things are complicated. Tell the stories of those seven young men, even if it is to just one other person.”

One person impressed by Whitehead’s article was The Telegraph’s Northern football writer Luke Edwards, who commented “I spoke to Jacob before he wrote this and I said, before I’d read any of it, that it was a very brave and important piece of journalism. He has delivered it superbly.”

It’s a comment which makes you ask why Edwards has never written anything similar himself in nearly 5 years since the Saudi state’s takeover of the club, and the subsequent execution of three of the young men sentenced to death has passed entirely without comment by Edwards and the rest of the North East press.

While journalists covering Newcastle United engage in a largely self-perpetuating cycle of endless speculation about Eddie Howe’s future, the future for Youssef Al-Manasif, Hassan Zaki Al-Faraj, Abdullah Al-Huwaiti, Jawad Qureiris, and Mahdi Al-Mohsen looks very bleak indeed.

And there is no future at all for Abdullah Al-Dirazi, Jalal Al-Labad, and Ali Al-Sbaiti.

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