Saudi top court revokes Montrealer’s death sentence

Saudi Arabia’s highest court has revoked the death sentence of a Montreal man held for his role in a fatal after-school brawl in 2007.  

A spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon says 24-year-old Mohamed Kohail is still in a Saudi jail, but no longer faces a public beheading after a court judgment on Saturday.

Saudi Arabia’s supreme court also decided that Kohail’s case should be retried.

But Cannon’s spokeswoman says nothing has been resolved yet in the case of his younger brother Sultan, whose case has been bumped up from juvenile court to adult court and a possible death penalty.

Mohamed Kohail and a Jordanian friend were both sentenced to death in March 2008, for their involvement in the killing of a 19-year-old in a brawl that started over an insult to a girl.

The Kohail family and the federal Liberals have frequently criticized Prime Minister Stephen Harper for not doing enough to intervene in the case.

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