Alghamdi, a father of seven living in Mecca, had gained just 10 followers between the two anonymous accounts he ran on X. According to Human Rights Watch, he used the social media site to rail against alleged government corruption, but was mostly resharing posts by more popular government critics.
The account was absolutely tiny
What prosecutors often argue in these cases is that insulting or criticizing Saudi Arabia’s leadership poses a threat to national security and can destabilize society. Many of these trials happen behind closed doors.
The very weak justification. Personally, I feel like executing someone over an account with 10 followers is what will make me doubt an administration’s competence.
Alghamdi’s brother, Saeed Alghamdi, believes the case against his younger brother is actually meant to target him. Saeed Alghamdi is a well-known Islamic scholar connected to many of the kingdom’s most prominent jailed critics. He left Saudi Arabia in 2013 and founded the Saudi rights group, SANAD. He now lives in exile in the United Kingdom.
He said Saudi authorities have tried to convince him to go back to the kingdom, promising money and a good life if he returns and stops his activism abroad.
So the real reason might have nothing to do with Twitter posts, but rather to spite the man’s older brother for running a human rights group.
How they got the info is unknown:
It’s unclear how Saudi authorities were able to verify Alghamdi’s identity on X.
In other cases, it appears the identity of Saudi users may have been leaked, exposing them to arrest and long prison sentences. An FBI complaint and federal investigation in the United States led to the conviction last year of a former Twitter employee found guilty of failing to register as an agent for Saudi Arabia. He was also convicted of taking bribes in exchange for passing along the confidential user data of Saudi government critics.
The recent case
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/31/1196776390/saudi-arabia-man-death-sentence-tweets
Things I found relevant
The account was absolutely tiny
The very weak justification. Personally, I feel like executing someone over an account with 10 followers is what will make me doubt an administration’s competence.
So the real reason might have nothing to do with Twitter posts, but rather to spite the man’s older brother for running a human rights group.
How they got the info is unknown:
And don’t forget where much of the $$$ used to fund the loan for the recent purchase of Twitter came from.