Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayed
Saudi authorities have released Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayyad, who was imprisoned for eight years for apostasy, a human rights group said on Tuesday. Fayad, 42, a descendant of Palestinian refugees who was born and lives in Saudi Arabia, was charged with apostasy in 2014 after a Saudi citizen accused him of promoting atheism. A Saudi court sentenced him to death in 2015, and his sentence was commuted on appeal to eight years in prison and 800 lashes on appeal. His main sin was writing a sacrilege book that supposedly promoted atheism.
The London-based human rights organization ALQST announced today (Tuesday) in a tweet about “the release of the Palestinian poet and artist Ashraf Fayyad, whose sentence has expired since October 2021”.
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According to the Palestinian daily Al-Quds, when Fayyad was arrested he was accused of blasphemy for his collection of poems “Instructions Inside”, which was interpreted as calling for the spread of atheism. Jurists said at the time that a member of a cultural group in the southern city of Abha filed a complaint against Fayed. One of the members of the group claimed to have heard Fayad say infidel things, while a cleric accused him of atheism in a collection of poetry he wrote years ago. In the first trial, witnesses said in court that the man who complained about Fayed “wanted to take revenge on him.” Fayed denied that his collection of poetry promotes atheism and also apologized for saying things that were interpreted as such.
Saudi Arabia, which applies Islamic law, punishes by death the crimes of rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and witchcraft. It is considered one of the countries that applies the maximum penalty in the world. According to an AFP count based on Interior Ministry data, Saudi Arabia has executed 120 people since the beginning of the year, exceeding the number of executions carried out over the past year, which included 69 people. But he has not implemented any such ruling since May 14.
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