Saudi prosecutors seek death penalty for academic over social media use

The arrest of Awad Al-Qarni, 65, in September 2017 represented the start of a crackdown against dissent by the then newly named crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

Details of the charges brought against Al-Qarni have now been shared with the Guardian by his son Nasser, who last year fled the kingdom and is living in the UK, where he has said he is seeking asylum protection. Public prosecutors have called for the death penalty in the case, but the court has yet to make a formal judgement.

Al-Qarni has been portrayed in Saudi-controlled media as a dangerous preacher, but dissidents have said Al-Qarni was an important and well-regarded intellectual with a strong social media following, including 2m Twitter followers.

Human rights advocates and Saudi dissidents living in exile have warned that authorities in the kingdom are engaged in a new and severe crackdown on individuals who are perceived to be critics of the Saudi government. Last year, Salma al-Shehab, a Leeds PhD student and mother of two, received a 34-year sentence for having a Twitter account and for following and retweeting dissidents and activists. Another woman, Noura al-Qahtani, was sentenced to 45 years in prison for using Twitter.

The kingdom has been seeking to project an image internationally of investing in technology, modern infrastructure, sport and entertainment, Basyouni said.

Ahmed Almutairi (also known as Ahmed Aljbreen), a Saudi who was charged with failing to register as a foreign agent when he allegedly took part in a 2014-15 conspiracy to infiltrate Twitter on behalf of the Saudi government and steal confidential user data, is considered a fugitive by the FBI after he evaded arrest in the US. The breach is believed to have led to the outing of at least one Twitter user, Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, who allegedly used a satirical account to mock the government. He was arrested and disappeared, and later sentenced to decades in prison.

The Netflix spokesperson Richard Siklos did not respond to requests for comment about the company sponsoring an event in Riyadh whose invitation list included a man wanted by the FBI. The Netflix CEO Reed Hastings acknowledged in 2020 that it agreed to censor an episode of comedy show Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, which included criticism of Saudi Arabia for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in exchange for Saudi allowing explicit content to be shown in the kingdom.

The Saudi government did not respond to requests for comment.