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The father of a Syrian teen beaten to death in a schoolyard brawl here says he might forgive the Canadian brothers accused in his son's murder - a mercy that could save them from an executioner's sword.

But Mueen Al-Haraki's rare offer of clemency comes with strings attached: He is demanding that Saudi Arabia order the death penalty for Mohamed and Sultan Kohail, a public admission of guilt from the brothers and an apology from their family for the killing of Munzer, his 19-year-old son.

Most crucially, he is asking the Canadian government to stop interfering in their case.

"When the court has taken its decision and if we have an apology, then there is a chance. We don't want to see more blood spilled," Mr. Al-Haraki said in an interview at a downtown office tower in Jeddah where his brother serves as director of a powerful consortium of Saudi companies with ties to the royal family.

"But I have a message for the Canadian government: Don't interfere and let our brand of justice run its course," he said, explaining he would forgive the Kohails only at the last possible moment - on the day of their execution, when according to Saudi law, the executioner is obliged to visit the victim's family to inquire about forgiveness that could lead to a criminal's life being spared.

Mr. Al-Haraki's offer has added a bizarre new twist to an already contentious case that has pitted two families against each other and deeply strained relations between Canada and Saudi Arabia.

If the Kohails take Mr. Al-Haraki at his word, their best chance of survival could hinge on them renouncing Ottawa's efforts to seek clemency directly from the Saudi government.

Until now, engaging Ottawa in their cause has been viewed as the best hope for the Kohails, who maintain they are innocent victims of conspiracy and a twisted justice system.

Mohamed Kohail, 23, is sitting on death row in a crowded cell in Jeddah's notorious Briman prison, having exhausted all avenues to appeal a ruling that found him guilty of murdering Munzer with his bare hands on the marble steps of an elite private school last January.

Reached on a mobile phone in his prison cell, he said he has stopped eating and sleeping, and lives in constant fear of his impending death.

He also says he is regularly abused and beaten. "Now I feel there is no hope," he said, his voice cracking over the din in the background.

Sultan Kohail, 17, also faces possible execution after Mr. Al-Haraki successfully lobbied Saudi's courts to retry him as an adult, seeking a more severe punishment than the 200 lashes originally sentenced by a juvenile-court judge.

He lives with his parents, Ali and Samiha Kohail, who are of Palestinian descent, in a rented villa on a quiet street not far from the Edugates School, where the fight took place.

Free on bail after serving eight months in juvenile prison, he rarely leaves his house and never alone, fearing he could be targeted by a vigilante mob.

"I cannot put into words how I am feeling right now. I only fall asleep when the sun rises. I cannot bear to think about what will happen to me next," said Sultan, who appears younger than he is and speaks with a hoarse voice.

The Kohails say their hope is fading, along with their faith that the Canadian government can do anything to save their sons.

Mr. Kohail says he has already attempted to contact the Al-Haraki family to express remorse over Munzer's death, but his overtures have been ignored.

"We truly share their sorrow and their grief, but our sons are innocent," Ali Kohail said.

Highlighting the bitter animosity that exists between the two families, the Al-Harakis categorically dismissed Mr. Kohail's account as "pure lies," saying nobody had reached out to them to express "one ounce" of grief.

The divergent stories of both families have typified their dispute from the start.

The schoolyard fight was sparked by an accusation that Sultan had insulted Munzer's younger female cousin and ended in a brawl that pitted more than a dozen Syrians and Palestinians against each other.

When the dust settled, Munzer, a tall, energetic forward on his school's basketball team who planned to study dentistry at university, lay dead from a ruptured bladder.

The Kohails, who were granted Canadian citizenship in 2005 and had travelled from Montreal to Saudi Arabia to prepare for a relative's wedding, were arrested at a hospital where they had gone for treatment.

The family says police forced both sons to sign false confessions.

They also say the courts prevented their lawyer from properly defending their sons and a judge excluded key witness statements that placed the Kohail brothers inside the school when Munzer was killed.

Ali Kohail said he has collected half a dozen of witnesses to testify Munzer died after being crushed by a crowd that fell on him when a fence collapsed.

However, Mr. Al-Haraki, a boat engineer, has his own version of events, which has so far been upheld by the Saudi courts.

He says he has half a dozen of his own witnesses who saw the Kohail brothers beat Munzer to death after the fence fell, until he stopped breathing.

He accuses the Kohails of lying out of desperation.

"They are feeling so much pain because they know their sons are going to be killed, but until now they did not even bother to say 'we're sorry,' " said Mr. Al-Haraki, who speaks in broken English in a quiet voice and hails from a prominent Syrian family in Saudi Arabia.

Their wealth and influence stand in stark contrast to the modest status of Mr. Kohail, who most recently made a living importing wooden kitchen doors from Canada to sell in the kingdom.

The Globe was unable to conclusively verify either version of events, as neither the Al-Harakis, nor the Kohails were willing to disclose the witness statements. The Saudi Arabian prosecutor's office refused to comment on the case while it is still in the courts.

Sultan Kohail's retrial is expected to start in the next few weeks. If he is found guilty, and is denied appeal, the young men's double death sentence would be submitted to a higher court for final approval.

The Kohails could face beheading early in the new year.

Faced with dwindling options, the Kohails seemed willing to consider trying anything to save their sons.

Unaware of Mr. Al-Haraki's ultimatum, Mr. Kohail, who still pays Canadian taxes on a Montreal property, has continued to plead for the Canadian government to step up efforts to free his sons.

"There is not enough pressure. We need help from the highest levels," he said.

However, sources in Saudi Arabia's prosecutor's office and legal experts in Jeddah suggested any further involvement from the Canadian government would be futile.

The Kohail case is the most sensitive to arise since the arrest in 2000 of William Sampson, a Canadian marketing consultant who said he was tortured in Saudi prison and forced to confess to a series of car bombings he did not commit, before being released 2½ years later.

The Saudi sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Kohail case was different because the charges centre on the individual loss of one family.

"The Canadian government will never be able to derail this. This is a case about an individual's right to revenge. It is not for the Saudi government to forgive, it is for the family," one lawyer said.

Mr. Al-Haraki, meanwhile, has made the conditions for his offer clear: "Let me have their lives in my hand, then we will talk."

Special to The Globe and Mail