Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was one of tens of thousands of young men who stood up to repressive governments across the Middle East during the 2011 to 2012 uprisings known as the Arab Spring. The then-17-year-old middle-class student, who loved photography and riding his bike, took part in protests in the Saudi Arabian city of Qatif in late 2011, watching as police arrested hundreds of marchers, some as young as 14, the Washington Post reports.

Now, three years later, he is sitting on what amounts to death row in the country, awaiting a potentially gruesome fate for crimes he says he didn't commit.

Following the protest, the teen's face was put on the government's most-wanted list. On Feb. 12, 2012 he was run over by a police car while riding his bicycle and detained without an arrest warrant. At first, his father says, Ali was not considered a terrorist and was even allowed to leave the prison for short periods to visit his family home. But when his uncle, cleric Nimr al-Nimr, was rested and caused of "inciting sectarian strife," things got much worse for Ali.

More Charges, More Beatings

As the protests in Qatif intensified, officials piled more charges onto Ali, now 21, including "breaking allegiance with the ruler," attending multiple marches and demonstrations against the state, "repeating some chants against the state" and using his cell to incite demonstrations. According to CNN, he was also accused of "sheltering fugitives and attacking police with Molotov cocktails and rocks."

When Ali's mother went to visit him in August 2012, she said he didn't look well because, as he told her, he'd been tortured by jailers until he confessed. "I would rather die than stay in this place," he told his mother, according to the Post. He was convicted in May of last year of the charges and Saudi Arabia's supreme court upheld the verdict in August.

His fate now lies in the hands of King Salman in a year when Saudi Arabia has already executed at least 134 people, the Post reports, more than in all of 2014. As his case has drawn howls of protest across the globe over claims that it is a show trial meant to crush dissent in the nation, Ali sits and waits to hear whether he will be beheaded and crucified for his alleged crimes. Sheik Nimr al-Nimr was scheduled to be crucified last month, though there is no confirmation that his sentence was carried out.

Where Is The International Outrage?

A petition to the White House to "negotiate for the release of Ali Mohammed Al-Nimr" has already garnered more than 98,000 signatures toward its goal of 100,000. Both the British Prime Minister and France's president have called the Saudi government to try and stop the execution, while the U.S. government has reportedly not commented at all yet.

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said in a statement to MTV News, "We are deeply concerned by the case of Ali al-Nimr, who was sentenced to death although he was a minor at the time of his arrest, and by allegations that his sentence was based on a confession made under duress."

The statement called on the government of Saudi Arabia to "respect universal human rights and its international obligations as well as to ensure fair and transparent judicial proceedings that afford requisite fair trial procedures and safeguards in this and all cases."

MTV News was awaiting a response from the Saudi Arabian embassy at press time.

Amnesty International released a statement two weeks ago calling the death sentence "outrageous" and urging authorities to rescind it. The organization called on the authorities to "quash Ali al-Nimr’s death sentence, which followed a grossly unfair trial and was based on 'confessions' Ali al-Nimr says were extracted under torture." It also urged the authorities to immediately impose an official moratorium on all executions and implement significant reforms in the country’s criminal justice system.

Amnesty also claimed that at least 20 people accused of taking part in the same protests have been "killed by security forces since 2011," while hundreds have been imprisoned. By imprisoning Ali and sentencing a juvenile to death, Amnesty said that Saudi Arabia is violating its obligations under the international Convention on the Rights of the Child, which says that "neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offenses committed by persons below eighteen years of age."

At press, another international petition aimed at Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.N. officials had garnered more than 1.4 million signatures.

"Ali al-Nimr's case has rightly prompted revulsion among the international community -- it is therefore horrifying that the Saudi government is pushing ahead with plans to exact a similarly brutal sentence on another juvenile," Maya Foa, director of the British human rights group Reprieve wrote earlier this month.

The U.N. has also urgently called for an immediate halt to "child executions."

"Mr. al-Nimr did not receive a fair trial and his lawyer was not allowed to properly assist him and was prevented from accessing the case file," U.N. human rights experts wrote in a press release. "International law, accepted as binding by Saudi Arabia, provides that capital punishment may only be imposed following trials that comply with the most stringent requirements of fair trial and due process, or could otherwise be considered an arbitrary execution."

In the meantime, the Saudi government recently tweeted that it "rejects" any interference from outside on its internal affairs.

A Mother's Plea

His mother, Nusra al-Ahmed, pleaded with President Obama to intervene on Wednesday (Oct. 14), telling The Guardian, "He is the head of this world and he can, he can interfere and rescue my son... To rescue someone from harm, there is nothing greater than that. I mean my son and I are simple people and we don't carry any significance in this world but despite that, if he [Obama] carried out this act, I feel it would raise his esteem in the eyes of the world. He would be rescuing us from a great tragedy."