Saudi Arabian academic on death row for using Twitter and WhatsApp | Saudi Arabia

A distinguished pro-reform regulation professor in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to demise for alleged crimes together with having a Twitter account and utilizing WhatsApp to share information thought-about “hostile” to the dominion, in line with courtroom paperwork seen by the Guardian.

The arrest of Awad Al-Qarni, 65, in September 2017 represented the beginning of a crackdown in opposition to dissent by the then newly named crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

Particulars of the costs introduced in opposition to Al-Qarni have now been shared with the Guardian by his son Nasser, who final 12 months fled the dominion and resides within the UK, the place he has mentioned he’s in search of asylum safety.

Al-Qarni has been portrayed in Saudi-controlled media as a harmful preacher, however dissidents have mentioned Al-Qarni was an essential and well-regarded mental with a robust social media following, together with 2m Twitter followers.

Human rights advocates and Saudi dissidents residing in exile have warned that authorities within the kingdom are engaged in a brand new and extreme crackdown on people who’re perceived to be critics of the Saudi authorities. Final 12 months, Salma al-Shehab, a Leeds PhD pupil and mom of two, obtained a 34-year sentence for having a Twitter account and for following and retweeting dissidents and activists. One other girl, Noura al-Qahtani, was sentenced to 45 years in jail for utilizing Twitter.

However the prosecution paperwork shared by Nasser Al-Qarni present that the usage of social media and different communications has been criminalised inside the dominion because the starting of Prince Mohammed’s reign.

The Saudi authorities and state-controlled traders have just lately elevated their monetary stake in US social media platforms, together with Twitter and Fb, and leisure firms resembling Disney. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a Saudi investor, is the second-largest investor in Twitter after Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform. The investor was himself detained for 83 days throughout a so-called anti-corruption purge in 2017. Prince Alwaleed has acknowledged that he was launched after he had reached an “understanding” with the dominion that was “confidential and secret between me and the federal government”.

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Funding Fund, has individually elevated its stake in Fb and Meta, the corporate that owns Fb and WhatsApp.

A translation of the costs in opposition to Al-Qarni, for which he’s going through the demise penalty, embrace the regulation professor’s “admission” that he used a social media account underneath his personal identify (@awadalqarni) and used it “at each alternative … to specific his opinions”. The paperwork additionally state that he “admitted” collaborating in a WhatsApp chat, and was accused of collaborating in movies by which he praised the Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Qarni’s obvious use of Telegram, and creation of a Telegram account, was additionally included in allegations.

Jeed Basyouni, the top of Center East and north African advocacy at Reprieve, the human rights group, mentioned Al-Qarni’s case suits right into a development the group has noticed of students and lecturers going through the demise penalty for tweeting and expressing their views.

Requested in regards to the kingdom’s funding in Fb and Twitter, Basyouni mentioned: “If it wasn’t so sinister, it will be farcical. It’s in keeping with how they’re working underneath this crown prince.”

The dominion has been in search of to venture a picture internationally of investing in expertise, fashionable infrastructure, sport and leisure, Basyouni mentioned.

“However on the similar time, that’s absolutely irreconcilable with all of the instances we’re seeing, the place we’re speaking in regards to the public prosecutor – underneath the steering of Mohammed bin Salman – calling for folks to be killed for his or her opinions, for tweets, for conversations. They don’t seem to be harmful, they’re not calling for an overthrow of the regime,” she mentioned.

Within the US, firms with giant Saudi investments or different enterprise in Saudi haven’t responded to public questions on Saudi’s remedy of dissent or the imprisonment of its customers. Nor has the dominion bowed to calls from the Biden administration to enhance its human rights report.

Ahmed Almutairi (also referred to as Ahmed Aljbreen), a Saudi who was charged with failing to register as a international agent when he allegedly took half in a 2014-15 conspiracy to infiltrate Twitter on behalf of the Saudi authorities and steal confidential person knowledge, is thought-about a fugitive by the FBI after he evaded arrest within the US. The breach is believed to have led to the outing of no less than one Twitter person, Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, who allegedly used a satirical account to mock the federal government. He was arrested and disappeared, and later sentenced to many years in jail.

Removed from protecting a low profile, Almutairi’s social media accounts present him main an lively life in Riyadh, together with posting an invite and VIP cross on his Snapchat this week to a celebration sponsored by Netflix at Riyadh’s Worldwide Park, which was hosted by the Saudi Normal Leisure Authority.

The Netflix spokesperson Richard Siklos didn’t reply to requests for remark in regards to the firm sponsoring an occasion in Riyadh whose invitation record included a person needed by the FBI. The Netflix CEO Reed Hastings acknowledged in 2020 that it agreed to censor an episode of comedy present Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, which included criticism of Saudi Arabia for the homicide of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in change for Saudi permitting express content material to be proven within the kingdom.

“It’s past abhorrent {that a} distinguished regulation professor faces the demise penalty for utilizing Twitter whereas an FBI fugitive, needed for infiltrating Twitter’s headquarters, receives a Netflix-sponsored VIP invitation to attend a Saudi authorities occasion,” mentioned Khalid Aljabri, who lives in exile and whose father was a former Saudi intelligence officer, and whose brother and sister are being held within the kingdom.

Saudi dissidents residing within the US additionally turned conscious this week that Ibrahim Alhussayen – a Saudi who had been residing within the US and pleaded responsible to mendacity to authorities after prosectors alleged he harassed and threatened people residing within the US and Canada – was deported again to Saudi after serving a brief sentence.

One among Alhussayen’s victims posted this week that an account belonging to the harasser sought to contact her after he was launched from jail. The DOJ didn’t reply to a request for remark.

The Saudi authorities didn’t reply to requests for remark.