Saudi teacher sentenced to 20 years for social media posts

A Saudi court sentenced a Saudi citizen, whose brother was sentenced to death last year, to 20 years in prison due to social media posts, Human Rights Watch reported yesterday.

The Specialised Criminal Court, which was established in 2008 to deliberate terrorism cases, convicted 47-year-old Asaad Al-Ghamdi last May, a year and a half after his arrest in November 2022 from his home in the city of Jeddah, western Saudi Arabia.

The organisation said that Al-Ghamdi was sentenced “to 20 years in prison on charges related to his peaceful social media activity.”

Asaad Al-Ghamdi, a teacher and father of six, is the brother of Mohammad Al-Ghamdi, who was sentenced to death last year for denouncing corruption and human rights violations in the kingdom on social media.

They are the brothers of the well-known activist and dissident Saeed Al-Ghamdi, who lives outside Saudi Arabia.

HRW reported that the Saudi authorities accused Asaad Al-Ghamdi of “challenging the religion and justice of the King and the Crown Prince” and “publishing false and malicious news and rumours.”

Court documents state that Al-Ghamdi was arrested “for publishing posts that harmed the security of the homeland on social media websites,” in reference to Twitter, according to HRW.

The organisation quoted its sources saying that “tweets used as evidence against him criticised projects related to Vision 2030, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s program for diversifying the country’s economy.”

Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: “Saudi courts mete out decades long sentences to ordinary citizens for nothing more than peacefully expressing themselves online. The government should also stop punishing family members of critics living abroad.”

Asaad Al-Ghamdi can appeal the ruling, his brother Saeed Al-Ghamdi told AFP.

“The ruling is completely unfair. The accusations are arbitrary and unjust because they are all based on tweets,” said Al-Ghamdi, adding, “Maybe I am the main target.”

HRW stated that the court appointed a lawyer for Al-Ghamdi but noted that the lawyer refused to provide his family with any documents from the court related to his case. He also refused to provide evidence of his epilepsy that his family believes would have been useful in the case.

Asaad al-Ghamdi was charged under the Saudi counterterrorism law passed by Saudi Arabia at the end of 2017, months after the crown prince took office.

HRW criticised the law at the time, saying that it included “vague and overly broad definitions of acts of terrorism” and that in some cases it might allow “the authorities to continue targeting peaceful criticism.”

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