A law professor in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to death for using Twitter and WhatsApp
Key takeaways:
- Saudi Arabian academic on death row for having a Twitter and WhatsApp account.
- Court documents expose reasons for Awad Al-Qarni’s detention – even though rulers are significant investors in social media firms.
According to court documents, a famous pro-reform law teacher in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to death for apparent crimes, including having a Twitter handle and using WhatsApp to share information considered “hostile” to the domain.
A law teacher arrested for using Twitter and WhatsApp:
The detention of Awad Al-Qarni, 65, in September 2017 represented the beginning of a crackdown against dissent by the then-newly designated crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
Details of the accusations brought against Al-Qarni have now been shared with the press by his son Nasser, who last year escaped the kingdom and is now in the UK, where he has said he is striving for asylum protection.
Al-Qarni has been shown in Saudi-controlled media as a risky preacher. Still, heretics have said Al-Qarni was an essential and well-regarded scholar with a solid social media following, having 2m Twitter followers.
Many others were also arrested for using social media:
Human rights advocates and Saudi dissenters living in exile have been alerted that authorities in the kingdom are gripped in a new and brutal crackdown on individuals who are sensed to be critics of the Saudi government.
Last year, Salma al-Shehab, a Leeds PhD student and mom of two, got a 34-year sentence for having a Twitter handle and for following and retweeting heretics and activists. Another lady, Noura al-Qahtani, was convicted of 45 years in jail for having Twitter.
But the prosecution documents shared by Nasser Al-Qarni show that the use of social media and other platforms has been outlawed inside the kingdom since the start of Prince Mohammed’s reign.
