Saudi Arabia: 20-year prison sentence for tweets criticizing government
A Saudi Arabian man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for voicing criticism of the government on the online platform X (formerly Twitter), Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Tuesday. Last year the man’s brother was sentenced to death for his social media activity.
According to HRW, Asaad al-Ghamdi, a 47-year-old teacher, was convicted of several alleged crimes in May by the Specialized Criminal Court, which prosecutes terrorism offenses – the total sentence was 20 years. The sole basis for the charges was opinions al-Ghamdi had expressed online.
According to court documents reviewed by HRW, Asaad al-Ghamdi was charged under articles of Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism law. His social media posts allegedly “harmed the security of the homeland.”
Criticism of the government
Citing sources familiar with the case, HWR reports that in some posts al-Ghamdi criticized projects connected to Vision 2030, a reform plan initiated by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that is intended to make the country’s economy less dependent on oil.
In one post, al-Ghamdi also lamented the death of a renowned Saudi human rights advocate who had died in prison.
The prosecution sought the maximum sentence for each charge. It also requested that al-Ghamdi’s X account be closed.
Asaad al-Ghamdi was first arrested in November 2022, after security forces staged a nighttime raid on his house. Electronic devices were confiscated as part of the arrest. Al-Ghamdi was not told at the time of the grounds for his arrest – and did not learn what the charges against him were until the trial began in September 2023.
HRW reports that al-Ghamdi was held in solitary confinement for months. It was not until January 2023 that his relatives were permitted to visit him.
The court appointed a lawyer for al-Ghamdi who refused to provide him or his family with documents relevant to his case. The lawyer met with his client only in the court room when the court was in session. He also refused to meet with his client’s family and declined to inform the court of the fact that al-Ghamdi suffers from epilepsy.
“Saudi courts mete out decades-long sentences to ordinary citizens for nothing more than peacefully expressing themselves online,” said Joey Shea of Human Rights Watch. “The government should also stop punishing family members of critics living abroad.”
Brother of critic in exile
HRW assumes the sentence against Asaad al-Ghamdi to be a repressive measure taken in response to the activities of his brother, Saeed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi, a prominent government critic who lives in exile in Great Britain. According to HRW, Saudi authorities often go after the family members of critics and dissidents as a means of forcing them to return to the country.
A third al-Ghamdi brother, Mohammed al-Ghamdi, was convicted of similar charges last year – and sentenced to death. In this trial as well, the defendant’s activities on X and on YouTube were put forward as evidence. Experts at the United Nations and several human rights organizations sharply criticized the court’s decision and demanded that the authorities revoke the sentence.
UN experts warned that the sentence, “if carried out, would constitute a flagrant violation of international human rights and will be considered an arbitrary execution.”
According to HRW, Mohammed al-Ghamdi is suffering from health problems even as he faces execution. His condition “has significantly deteriorated in detention.” The organization demands that Saudi authorities immediately provide both brothers with proper medical attention.
Human Rights Watch criticizes the “rampant abuses” in Saudi Arabia’s criminal justice system, which include “long periods of detention without charge or trial, denial of legal assistance, and the courts’ reliance on torture-tainted confessions as the sole basis of conviction.”
Decades-long prison sentences for voicing opinions
In recent years several cases have come to light of Saudi courts sentencing people to years-long prison terms for expressing their views on social media.
PhD student Salma al-Shehab was sentenced to 34 years in prison in August 2022 for following women’s rights activists on X and sharing their posts. The sentence was reduced to 27 years on appeal in early 2023 – though it also imposes a 27-year travel ban.
Nura al-Kahtani too was convicted for sharing her opinion on X, according to human rights advocates. A court handed down a sentence of 45 years. Activists have documented still more cases: according to Amnesty International, in the last year alone a total of 15 people have been sentenced to prison terms of between 10 and 45 years for expressing opinions online.
According to the human rights organization ALQST, the Saudi-American filmmaker Abdulaziz al-Muzaini was also recently sentenced to 13 years in prison for his social media posts. (js)