The Saudi court punished a Sudanese journalist for four years in prison for critical social media posts against the kingdom, said Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.
Ahmed Ali Abdelkader, Personality and 31-year-old media journalist, imprisoned for “insulting the institutions and state symbols”, “talking negatively about royal policies …
and talking about (loyal media platforms to hostile parties with the kingdom) In a harmful way for the kingdom “among other accusations.
The fee was associated with tweets and media interviews he shared on Twitter where he criticized Saudi’s actions in Sudan and Yemen and expressed support for the Sudan Revolution 2018-2019.
“This and other similar prosecutions showed how agile the Saudi authorities were to stick to even the smallest criticism or question social media and block all the differences of opinion in the threat of a long prison sentence”, said Michael Page, Deputy Director of the Middle East in Human Rights Watch.
The Saudi government media office did not immediately respond to a comment request.
Abdelkader was arrested at Jeddah Airport on April 19 and was held at the police station for 20 days before his transfer to the Al-Shumaisi detention center near Mecca, said HRW.
He was interrogated twice during his detention and was accused of behavior on Twitter which was dangerous for Saudi Arabia, HRW said, quoting the source.
He was rejected access to lawyers, including legal representatives in court, said HRW, which consisted of two short sessions where Abdelkader was not allowed to defend himself.
Abdelkader, who lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for five years between 2015 and 2020, was punished by the Jeddah Criminal Court for Tweet and statements to the media during and after February 2018, most of which were posted when he was in Saudi Arabia.
Email to an international human rights group, where he asked about membership, also quoted in confidence.
Human Rights Watch reviews the contents of the social media posts quoted in confidence and “determine that no one is inciting violence, hatred or discrimination”.
Some tweets refer to Saudi relations with Sudan, including one in July 2018 where Abdelkader accused Saudi media to target Sudan and Arabic Saudi financing.