CNN –
A Saudi court has sentenced a retired teacher to death over his online comments, his brother and advocacy group Human Rights Watch say.
Muhammad al-Ghamdi, a 54-year-old retired Saudi teacher, was convicted “after five tweets in which he criticized corruption and human rights abuses,” his brother Saeed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi tweeted last week.
According to Human Rights Watch, Muhammad al-Ghamdi was arrested last year and had little access to a lawyer before being convicted in July “under Article 30 of Saudi Arabia’s anti-terrorism law” for attacking “the king or “described the Crown Prince in a way that undermined religion.” or justice’, Article 34 for ‘supporting a terrorist ideology’, Article 43 for ‘communication with a terrorist entity’ and Article 44 for publishing false news ‘with the intent to commit a terrorist crime’.”
“Repression in Saudi Arabia has reached a frightening new stage where a court can impose the death penalty only for peaceful tweets,” Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia has executed at least 92 people so far this year, according to the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights. In 2022, the UK-based human rights organization ALQST recorded 148 executions in Saudi Arabia – more than twice as many executions as in 2021.
The death sentence comes amid an “escalating crackdown” on free expression in the country, said Lina Alhathloul, ALQST head of monitoring and advocacy and sister of released Saudi political prisoner Loujain al-Hathloul.
“They send a clear and scary message – that no one is safe and even a tweet can kill you,” she said.
Al-Ghamdi’s brother Saeed, a prominent Saudi Islamic scholar and government critic living in self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom, said he believed the harshness of the sentence was also aimed at punishing him.
“Saudi authorities asked me to return to Saudi Arabia several times, but I refused to do so. It is very likely that this death sentence against my brother is retaliation for my actions. Otherwise, such a severe sentence would not have been imposed on his charges,” he said.
CNN reached out to Saudi Arabia’s Justice and Interior Ministries for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.