The family of a Canadian teen convicted by a Saudi Arabian court on manslaughter charges will appeal the decision.
Sultan Kohail, 17, was sentenced to a year in prison and 200 lashes last week for his role in a schoolyard rumble that resulted in the death of a man.
Family spokesperson Mahmoud Al-Ken told CTV's Canada AM on Monday that both Kohail's family and the family of the victim are appealing the sentence.
Last month, Kohail's brother Mohamed was convicted for his role in the same incident. However, the judge in Mohamed's case sentenced the 23-year-old to death by public beheading.
"We know that the death penalty is there for crimes of first-degree murder," said Al-Ken.
"However, they're not facing a first-degree murder in this case, it's a manslaughter case."
Al-Ken said Mohamed received a harsher sentence because of a lack of due process.
"The judge in Sultan's case, he did follow a cross-examination of the... prosecutor's witnesses," said Al-Ken.
"Mohamed lacked this procedure and we see a largely and significantly sentence... although the same charges were pressed against Sultan and Mohamed."
On Jan. 13, 2007, Syrian youth Munzer Haraki was killed in a schoolyard brawl at Jeddah's Edugates International School where Sultan Kohail was a student.
Haraki died from internal injuries.
The Kohail brothers say they were beaten until they confessed to the murder of Haraki. Their father has also told reporters Sultan suffered a broken leg while in custody. Sultan, 16 at the time, had allegedly been threatened by a group of school peers after being accused of insulting a Syrian girl.
Mohamed and another friend came to the school to defend Sultan from the threats.
Despite a cellphone video of the brawl obtained by The Globe and Mail, the exact events of the schoolyard altercation have yet to be determined. The minute-long grainy video shows approximately a dozen youths fighting as teachers unsuccessfully try to break up the brawl.
The brothers maintain they did not deliver the fatal blows to Hakari.
Mohamed and Sultan, Saudi-born Palestinians, emigrated with their parents to Montreal where they lived from 2000 to 2006 before returning to Jeddah when a family member became ill.
