According to court documents seen by the Guardian, a well-known reform-minded law professor in Saudi Arabia is facing the death penalty for alleged offences that include using and Twitter to spread information deemed “hostile” to the country. His son Nasser, who left the country last year and is currently residing in the UK and claiming to be looking for asylum status, has now provided the Guardian with specifics of the accusations made against Al-Narnia. The death penalty has been requested by public prosecutors in this case, although the court has not yet issued an official ruling. social media
Human rights activists and exiled Saudi dissidents have warned that the kingdom’s authorities are waging a fresh, harsh assault on people who are thought to be regime critics. Selma AL-Sheba, a mother of two and PhD candidate from Leeds, was given a 34-year term last year for having a Twitter account and for following and retweeting activists and dissidents. Nora AL-Maharani, another woman, received a 45-year prison term for using Twitter.
Recently, the Saudi government and state-controlled investors boosted their financial stakes in US entertainment corporations like Disney as well as social media giants like Twitter and Facebook. After Elton Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, Saudi investor Prince Walleyed bin Halal holds the second-largest stake in the social media network. In 2017, the investor was himself imprisoned for 83 days as part of an alleged anti-corruption campaign. Prince Walleyed stated that he was freed following the conclusion of a “arrangement” that was “private and secret between me and
the government” with the kingdom.
Al-Qarni is accused of using a social media account with his own name (@awadalqarni) and using it “at every chance… to convey his thoughts,” according to a translation of the allegations. Additionally, according to the records, he “confessed” taking part in a WhatsApp chat and was implicated in films in which he was seen praising the Muslim Brotherhood. Allegations also included Al-ostensible Qarni’s usage of Telegram and the establishment of a Telegram account.
The public prosecutor, acting under Mohammed bin Salman’s direction, has called for people to be killed for their thoughts, for tweets, or for talks, but at the same time, that is completely incongruent with all the cases we are witnessing. They don’t advocate overthrowing the government, thus they aren’t dangerous, she claimed. smm panel
Companies in the US with significant assets in Saudi Arabia or other business there have not responded to inquiries from the public over how Saudi treats dissent or imprisons its users. Furthermore, the kingdom has not acceded to demands from the Biden administration
to strengthen its record on human rights.
The Saudi national Ahmed Almutairi (also known as Ahmed Aljbreen), who was accused of taking part in a plot to hack into Twitter on behalf of the Saudi government in 2014 and 2015 and steal private user information, was charged with failing to register as a foreign agent and is now being sought by the FBI after he managed to elude capture in the US. Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, a Twitter user who allegedly created a satirical account to mock the government, is thought to have been exposed as a result of the incident. After being detained, he vanished, and was eventually given a lengthy prison term.
Requests for comment regarding Netflix hosting an event in Riyadh that had a man wanted by the FBI on the guest list were not answered by Netflix spokesperson Richard Siklos. Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, admitted in 2020 that the company had agreed to censor an episode of the comedy series Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj because it contained criticism of Saudi Arabia for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in return for the Saudi government allowing explicit content to be aired in the country.