A court docket in Saudi Arabia sentenced a retired trainer to 30 years’ jail for criticising the federal government on social media, his brother stated on Tuesday. This comes lower than two months after his demise sentence was overturned. The previous trainer was recognized as Mohammed al-Ghamdi. His demise sentence highlighted what critics describe as heightened repression beneath Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Gulf kingdom’s de facto ruler.
In an interview to Fox Information that aired in September 2023, Prince Mohammed addressed the case, saying the federal government was “ashamed” over it and expressing hope the end result could possibly be modified.
Ghamdi’s demise sentence was overturned on attraction in August. However the appeals court docket sentenced him to 30 years imprisonment on the identical prices, his brother Saeed al-Ghamdi, an Islamic scholar who lives in Britain, informed AFP.
In July 2023, Mohammed al-Ghamdi had been sentenced to demise by the Specialised Prison Court docket, which was arrange in 2008 to cope with terrorism-related instances. The previous trainer, who’s in his 50s, was arrested in June 2022.
The case towards him was at the very least partly constructed on posts criticising the federal government and expressing assist for “prisoners of conscience” just like the jailed non secular clerics Salman al-Awda and Awad al-Qarni, his brother has beforehand stated, based on AFP.
After the authorized troubles got here to gentle final yr, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights stated his account on social media platform X had solely 9 followers.
The costs he confronted included conspiracy towards the Saudi management, undermining state establishments, and supporting terrorist ideology, sources briefed AFP on the small print stated on the time.
“This about-face in judgements testifies to the dramatic state of the dominion’s politicised judicial system,” Saeed al-Ghamdi stated on X. “My brother shouldn’t be responsible to be arrested and tried on this approach,” he additional acknowledged.
The Saudi authorities, nevertheless, couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
Final month, Human Rights Watch and Saeed al-Ghamdi reported that one other brother, 47-year-old Asaad al-Ghamdi, had been sentenced to 20 years over crucial social media posts.
There was no phrase on Tuesday on whether or not judges would additionally evaluation Asaad al-Ghamdi’s sentence.
(With AFP Inputs)
