(Adnkronos) – A Saudi journalist, Turki al-Jasser, was executed after being found guilty of ”high treason”. A post shared on what was then Twitter in 2014, where he wrote that “an Arab writer can be easily killed by his government under the pretext of ‘national security'”, proved fatal. In announcing the execution of his death sentence, the Interior Ministry of Riyadh explained that the 40-year-old journalist was found guilty of crimes such as “high treason, for communicating and conspiring against the security of the Kingdom with external individuals”. Activists contacted by the Guardian reported that al-Jasser was tortured during his seven years in detention.
The Guardian defines the death of al-Jasser as ”the first high-profile killing of a journalist by the Saudi state since the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist and well-known critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman”. Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by Saudi agents. According to the United Nations, it was an extrajudicial execution by Riyadh and an intelligence assessment released by then-US President Joe Biden in 2020 concluded that Mbs had approved the murder.
Al-Jasser had founded the news blog Al-Mashhad Al-Saudi which, according to Reporters Without Borders, dealt with women’s and Palestinian rights. “Turki had two Twitter accounts. While he used his real name to express his opinions, he was even more satirical and direct with the other account, which was targeted by the Saudi government,” says Abdullah Alaoudh, director for the fight against authoritarianism at the Middle East Democracy Center. “The government assumed that his and other anonymous Twitter accounts were part of a coordinated effort and a delusional conspiracy to overthrow the Saudi government,” he adds.
Reporters Without Borders said al-Jasser was the first journalist to be sentenced to death and executed in Saudi Arabia under Mohammed bin Salman’s rule and the second in the world since 2020, when Amadnews director Ruhollah Zam was put to death in Iran. Legal experts pointed out that Mbs could have legally intervened in al-Jasser’s execution given that, under Saudi law, the crown prince or the king must approve every death sentence. “With Jasser’s execution, Mohammed bin Salman has shown us once again that he is a vindictive and touchy tyrant who kills those who criticize him,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Dawn, a pro-democracy group founded by Khashoggi.
