By Gabriel Lake
Aug 31, 2023, 23:15 PM EDT
Muhammad al-Ghamdi, a 54-year-old retired teacher, has been sentenced to death after posting critical comments online.
His brother, Saeed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi, revealed that Muhammad was sentenced after a series of tweets criticizing corruption and human rights violations in Saudi Arabia.
Human Rights Watch reported that Muhammad al-Ghamdi was arrested last year and had limited access to legal representation before being found guilty in July.
He was charged under several articles of Saudi Arabia’s anti-terror law, including “describing the King or Crown Prince in a way that undermines religion or justice.”
In addition, al-Ghamdi is accused of “supporting a terrorist ideology”, “communicating with a terrorist entity” and “publishing false information” with the intent to carry out a “terrorist crime”, according to CNN.
Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch, expressed surprise at the court’s decision, noting that the country has reached a new level of repression when death sentences are imposed for peaceful tweets.
Muhammad al-Ghamdi’s sentencing comes against the backdrop of a growing crackdown on freedom of expression inside Saudi Arabia. Lina Alhathloul, ALQST’s head of monitoring and advocacy and the sister of Saudi political prisoner Loujain al-Hathloul, stressed that the verdict sends a message that no one is safe from repercussions for expressing their opinions, including on social media.
Muhammad al-Ghamdi’s brother, Saeed, a leading Saudi Islamic scholar and government critic living in the UK, believes the harsh sentence against his brother is an attempt to punish him too. He suspects that his own activism and his criticism of the Saudi authorities played a role in the harsh punishment inflicted on his brother.
According to the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, Saudi Arabia has executed at least 92 people so far this year.
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