A Saudi Arabian man who was arrested as a teen back in 2012 as he was about to board a plane to the US to attend Western Michigan University was among nearly 40 Saudi nationals who were beheaded across the kingdom this week.

Mujtaba al-Sweikat, who had been accepted into the Michigan college, was just 17 years old when he was taken into custody at Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd International Airport after allegedly attending a pro-democracy rally, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Al-Sweikat was ultimately convicted of protest-related offenses, the Saudi Arabian government said.

During his time in custody, al-Sweikat was severely beaten, the news outlet reported.

The country on Tuesday beheaded 37 Saudi citizens — most of them minority Shiite Muslims and at least three minors — in a mass execution for alleged terrorism-related crimes.

Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned the beheadings, saying in a statement Wednesday: “It is particularly abhorrent that at least three of those killed were minors at the time of their sentencing.”

With Post wires