KSA sentences uni prof. to 30 years in prison over tweets

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Saudi journalist Turki Al-Shalhoub, who previously triggered a public outcry for exposing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s contentious plans against highly revered sites in Saudi Arabia, tweeted on Tuesday that the State Security Court had passed the ruling regarding the professor at the media faculty of Umm al-Qura University in Mecca, Muhammad bin Mohsin Basurrah.

Al-Shalhoub cited several connected Tweets by Basurrah and said he had commented on the disinformation campaign of the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV, Saudi Arabia's 3-year diplomatic dispute with Qatar and other Arab countries, in addition to the security situation in the country.

بسبب هذه التغريدات، حكمت محاكم التفتيش #السعودية على المحاضر في قسم الإعلام في جامعة أم القرى الاستاذ محمد بن محسن باصرة بالسجن 30 سنة!!! pic.twitter.com/J3ubVCkQF0

— تركي الشلهوب (@TurkiShalhoub) December 27, 2022

“Saudi security forces only intervene when the sovereignty of the House of Saud is threatened; otherwise they would not take any serious actions,” the journalist commented.

Last month, the independent non-governmental organization advocating human rights in Saudi Arabia, Prisoners of Conscience, reported that state officials had jailed pro-democracy campaigner Fadi Ibrahim Nasser over tweets that denounced the government and the policies of the Saudi regime.

A Saudi opposition activist, Abdul Hakim bin Abdul Aziz, revealed that the Saudi authorities had arrested his son, Yasser, from his university, as part of the Kingdom's aggressive crackdown against activists that criticize the performance of the ruling regime on social media.

Bin Abdul Aziz considered that the arrest of his son exposes "the oppression and tyranny of the ruling regime in Saudi Arabia and is a desperate attempt to force me to remain silent about the violations that the country is witnessing."

It is noteworthy that bin Abdul Aziz is one of the founders of the "Zawina" organization, which is concerned with supporting the families of prisoners of conscience and exposing human rights violations against detainees and their families.

Saudi authorities sentenced 15 prisoners of conscience to death in November

At the beginning of last month, the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights revealed that the Saudi authorities had sentenced 15 prisoners of conscience to death, bringing the number of people at risk of death to 53, including at least eight minors.

In the same context, the Saudi Court of Appeal extended in October the sentence of Tunisian national Mahdia Al-Marzouki, from two years and eight months to 15 years, on charges of interacting with a tweet.

Similarly, the Saudi authorities sentenced an American citizen to 16 years in prison for criticizing the Saudi regime in a tweet.

Hundreds of bloggers, activists, intellectuals, and others have been arrested in Saudi Arabia ever since bin Salman became crown prince in 2017, an obvious sign of zero tolerance for dissent even against the international condemnation of repressive measures.

Over the past years, the country also redefined its anti-terrorism laws to persecute peaceful activists, repressing freedom of expression.