Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day arrived in Riyadh on Tuesday for a meeting with Saudi Arabian officials to discuss the fate of a 23-year-old Canadian man sentenced to death.

Government officials told CBC News that Day will raise the case of Mohammed Kohail with top-level Saudi officials on Wednesday and urge them to overturn the sentence. Day is currently on a tour of the Middle East.

This month, Kohail was sentenced to execution by public beheading in the death of a Saudi youth killed during a schoolyard brawl in 2007. Kohail has 30 days to appeal the ruling and time is running out.

Family members say Kohail did not get a fair trial. The entire case consisted of 10 court hearings totalling about 90 minutes. They say none of the defence witnesses was heard.

Mahmoud Al-Ken, a friend of the Kohail family and a Montreal journalist, told CBC News on Tuesday that the Canadian government knew about "serious flaws" in the trial.

"Now we're facing very serious circumstances here," he said. "We need aggressive diplomatic pressure to be applied to Saudi officials."

Al-Ken said the Canadian government should step up pressure to have the death sentence overturned because he doubts a legal appeal through the Saudi courts will spare Kohail's life.

"If the court of appeal accepts the appeal and it goes through the regular system, the case will go back to the same judge, and it's very unlikely the judge will reverse his own decision," he said.

Supporters of Kohail have said they are worried that the federal government's recent decision not to seek clemency for another Canadian facing the death penalty in the United States will give the Saudis the argument that Canada is employing a double standard and being hypocritical in its request to spare Kohail.

The Harper government has said Canada will no longer seek clemency for Canadians sentenced to death in democratic countries where the individual receives a fair trial.