Saudi Arabia sentences activist’s brother to death for critical comments on social media

2023-08-27 16:01:04

The authorities of Saudi Arabia The brother of a renowned Saudi activist has been sentenced to death for allegedly posting on X (formerly Twitter) criticism of corruption and the human rights situation in the Arab monarchy, the Gulf Center for Human Rights (CGHR) reported today. ).

The condemnation against Mohamed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi was issued on July 10, after publishing from “an unknown account” on the X platform “criticism of corruption” and “human rights violations” that are carried out in Saudi Arabia, the NGO said in a statement, collected by the Efe agency.

His brother, the renowned activist Saeed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi exiled in the United Kingdom since 2018, he defended on August 24 on social networks that the court specializing in terrorism cases that tried his relative did not accept the medical reports indicating that the sentenced person suffers from “chronic neurological diseases”. He also did not take into account that the profile from which these publications were made was “unknown” and had “only nine followers”.

Faced with this situation, Saeed pointed out that the death sentence against his brother, which he described as “false”, is intended to force the return to Saudi Arabia of the activist from 62 yearsafter Saudi intelligence services made “failed attempts” to repatriate him.

in 2017

The dissident was the victim of a fierce campaign by the Saudi government against critics in 2017, which led to a wave of arrests against human rights defenders, and in 2018 he sought political asylum in the UK and from there runs the Sanad Rights Foundation, which documents human rights violations in the kingdom.

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“The CGHR considers that this represents a dangerous escalation after the shocking prison sentences of decades handed down against human rights defenders (…) Saudi Arabia has been transformed into a repressive police state par excellence,” the NGO said in its statement, in which he recalled that dozens of activists have recently been arrested for their activities on the Internet.

The organization also said it “firmly believes that the death penalty has been widely used as a political tool by the Saudi authorities and is designed to sow fear in the country and terrorize citizens, particularly human rights activists.”