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Rabat – Saudi pro-reform law Professor Awad Al-Qarni was sentenced to death for offenses including having a Twitter account and using WhatsApp to share news that was considered “hostile” to the kingdom, the Guardian reported.
Al-Qarni was arrested in September 2017 as part of a crackdown against dissent by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The Guardian said it had seen the court documents through Al-Qarni’s son, Nasser, who fled the kingdom last year and is currently seeking asylum in the UK.
The documents reportedly show that the use of social networks has been criminalized inside the kingdom since the start of the Crown Prince’s reign, despite the country’s government and investment arms investing heavily in said platforms.
Activists and Saudi dissidents living abroad have voiced warnings that the kingdom’s authorities are cracking down on critics more. To support their point they brought up Salma Al-Shehab who received a 34-year sentence for following activists on Twitter, and Noura al-Qahtani who received a 45-year sentence for using the social media platform.
Head of Middle East and North African Advocacy at human rights group Reprieve, Jeed Basyouni, said Al-Qarni’s case is in line with a trend in Saudi Arabia to imprison academics and activists who express their views, especially through social media.
Basyouni said the kingdom’s investments in the sector are meant to broadcast a more open and accepting image internationally, but that dissidents and activists in the country still get punished.
Some activists also noticed a pattern of punishing Saudis living or studying abroad. Back in November, a member of the royal family was arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison after returning from his studies in the US.
The arrest was reportedly tied to phone calls he had made while still in the US regarding the arrest of one of his cousins for dissent.
