Riyadh: A 47-year-old Saudi teacher, Asaad bin Nasser Al-Ghamdi, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for using X, formerly known as Twitter, to express his opinions, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Al-Ghamdi was arrested in November 2022 in a nighttime raid on his home in the al-Hamdaneyah neighbourhood of the port city of Jeddah.
He was convicted on May 29 by Saudi Arabia’s Specialised Criminal Court, of several criminal offenses related solely to his peaceful expression online.
He was held in solitary confinement at Dhahban prison in Jeddah for three months, incommunicado for nearly two months, and only received his first visit from family members on January 11, 2023.
Court documents indicate that Al-Ghamdi was arrested for publishing posts on Twitter that allegedly harmed the security of the homeland.
HRW reported that the Saudi authorities accused Al-Ghamdi of “challenging the religion and justice of the King and the Crown Prince” and “publishing false and malicious news and rumours.”
HRW claims that the posts used as evidence against him criticized projects related to the Vision 2030 reform agenda.
“Security forces confiscated electronic devices and ransacked every room of the house. He was not informed of the reasons for the arrest or of the charges against him.”
Al-Ghamdi is the brother of Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, who was sentenced to death in 2023 for “denouncing corruption and human rights violations” in the kingdom on social media.
Saeed bin Nasser Al-Ghamdi, a third brother, is a renowned Saudi Islamic scholar and government critic, is currently living in exile in the United Kingdom (UK).
Saudi authorities frequently resort to retaliation against foreign critics and dissidents’ families to force their return to the country.
Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at HRW, said,
“Saudi courts mete out decades-long sentences to ordinary citizens for nothing more than peacefully expressing themselves online.”
“The government should also stop punishing family members of critics living abroad.”
The court appointed a lawyer for Al-Ghamdi, but the lawyer refused to provide necessary court documents and evidence of health condition, according to HRW.
Al-Ghamdi suffers from epilepsy, which requires consistent medical attention to manage adequately. He has not received such care during his detention, the informed sources told HRW.
This is not the first time the kingdom has punished someone for using social media.
Since Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, became the Saudi Crown Prince in June 2017, dozens of imams, women’s rights activists and members of the ruling royal family have been detained.
In August 2022, a woman named Salma Al-Shehab was sentenced to 34 years in prison for having a Twitter account and for posting tweets about activists and critics of the Mohammed bin Salman regime.
In August 2022, Nourah al-Qahtani, a mother of five, was sentenced a week later to 45 years in prison over tweets from two anonymous accounts.
Among those arrested are prominent Islamic preachers Salman al-Awdah, Awad al-Qarni, Farhan al-Malki, Mostafa Hassan and Safar al-Hawali.
