A 54-year-old retired teacher has been sentenced to death by a Saudi court over his social media posts in the latest sign of the increasing crackdown on dissent in the kingdom.
Mohammed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi received the death penalty from a Saudi court over his posts on X (formerly Twitter) and on YouTube.
The judgment follows other severe sentences imposed against Saudi citizens for online activities, including Salma al-Shehab, a mother of two and doctoral student in the UK who returned to Saudi Arabia for a vacation in 2022 and was arrested and sentenced to 34 years in prison for her social media activities.
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The sentences appear to be part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s wider effort to stamp out any defiance in the kingdom as he pursues massive building projects and diplomatic deals to raise his profile globally.
The crackdown has sparked widespread international criticism.
“Repression in Saudi Arabia has reached a terrifying new stage when a court can hand down the death penalty for nothing more than peaceful tweets,” said Joey Shea, a researcher on Saudi Arabia at the monitoring organization Human Rights Watch.
“Saudi authorities have escalated their campaign against all dissent to mind-boggling levels and should reject this travesty of justice,” he said.