In a move seen by many as using the death penalty as a political weapon in Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on activism, authorities have handed down a death sentence to the sibling of a well-known Saudi activist.
The authorities are justifying the sentence on the grounds of alleged postings criticizing corruption and human rights violations in the Arab monarchy on X (formerly Twitter).
Mohamed bin Nasser al Ghamdi was convicted on July 10 after posting “criticisms of corruption” and “human rights violations” in Saudi Arabia from an “unknown account” on the X platform, the NGO stated.
His brother is a renowned activist, Saeed bin Nasser al Ghamdi, who has been living in exile in the United Kingdom since 2018.
(BBC News – death penalty as a political weapon – Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on activism)
He argued on X on August 24 that the specialized terrorism court that judged his relative did not consider the medical reports indicating that the convict suffers from “chronic neurological diseases”.
This oversight raises concerns about the trial’s fairness and the accused’s well-being.
Nor did it consider that the account from which the posts were made was “unknown” and had “only nine followers”.
Saeed suggested that the “false” death sentence against his brother is aimed at forcing the 62-year-old activist to return to Saudi Arabia after the Saudi intelligence services made “unsuccessful attempts” to repatriate him.
The dissident was targeted by a biased Saudi government campaign against critics in 2017, leading to a wave of arrests of human rights defenders.
In 2018, he sought political asylum in the United Kingdom, where he runs the Sanad Rights Foundation, which documents human rights violations in the kingdom.
“The GCHR believes this represents a dangerous escalation following the shocking decades-long prison sentences handed down to human rights defenders (…).”
“Saudi Arabia has become the quintessential repressive police state,” the NGO said in its statement, noting that dozens of activists have recently been arrested in the country for online activities.
Additionally, the organization stated that it “strongly believes that the death penalty has been widely used as a political tool by the Saudi authorities and is designed to instill fear in the country and terrorize its citizens, particularly human rights activists”.