Saudi Arabia has ramped up its crackdown on social media activists, handing down decades-long prison sentences for those posting online comments critical of the kingdom’s policies.
Back in August, the Saudi Specialized Criminal Court sentenced 18-year-old high school student Manar al-Gafiri to 18 years in prison, reported the rights advocacy group ALQST, which documents human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia.
Carlos de las Heras, a specialist on Saudi Arabia at Amnesty International, said Gafiri was underage when she was arrested for her X (formerly Twitter) posts in support of Saudi political prisoners and “human rights defenders, especially women who demand equal rights.”
This and other cases indicate “a worrying increase over the last year of repression against those who use the internet to express opposition,” he added.
In another controversial ruling, the Saudi Specialized Criminal Court sentenced retired professor Muhammad al-Ghamdi, 54, to death on July 10 for his criticism of the royal family on X and YouTube video sharing platform.
This is while Ghamdi had a total of 10 followers on his two X accounts, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
During a recent interview with Fox News, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman confirmed the death sentence against the professor, saying, “[This conviction] embarrasses us. But I can’t tell a judge [to ignore] the law. That would go against the rule of law.”
In August 2022, the same Saudi court raised the prison sentence against the PhD student Salma al-Shehab from six to 34 years over a tweet that allegedly contained a subtle criticism of a new Saudi public transportation contract.
The sentence handed to the 35-year-old woman was later reduced to 27 years.
Another court also sentenced Nourah al-Qahtani to 45 years in imprison for the alleged use of the internet “to break the social fabric.”
In 2022, Amnesty International said 15 people had been sentenced to between 10 and 45 years in Saudi jails for their peaceful online activities.
Ali al-Ahmed, founder of the Institute for Persian Gulf Affairs think tank, said the sentences against internet users are only one visible face of a widespread repression against critics of the Saudi government.
“Most of the time we hear about cases like these because outsiders can see that someone stops tweeting or posting,” he noted. “Saudi Arabia is “the worst state in terms of surveillance in the world.”
Ahmed sued Twitter in 2020, alleging that two of its employees, Ahmad Abouammo and Ali al-Zabarah, had hacked his account between 2013 and 2016 and leaked data to Saudi intelligence.
In a different case in the United States, Abouammo was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for spying for Riyadh, while Zabarah fled to Saudi Arabia. They are believed to have been hired by Bader al-Asaker, bin Salman’s closest collaborator, to identify and spy on Saudi dissidents on Twitter.
Ever since bin Salman became Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader in 2017, the kingdom has arrested hundreds of activists, bloggers, intellectuals and others for their political activism, showing almost zero tolerance for dissent even in the face of international condemnation of the crackdown.
Muslim scholars have been executed and women’s rights campaigners have been put behind bars and tortured as freedom of expression, association, and belief continues to be denied by the kingdom’s authorities.
Over the past years, Riyadh has also redefined its anti-terrorism laws to target activism.
