Saudi Arabia Executes Journalist After 7 Years In Prison Over Posts Against Royal Family
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Al-Jasser was detained following a raid on his residence in 2018, during which authorities confiscated his electronic devices including phones and computer.
Saudi Arabia has executed prominent journalist Turki Al-Jasser, who was arrested in 2018 and later convicted on charges of terrorism and treason. The official Saudi Press Agency confirmed that the execution took place on Saturday after the kingdom's highest court upheld the death sentence.
However, activist groups maintain that the charges against him were trumped up.
Al-Jasser was detained following a raid on his residence in 2018, during which authorities confiscated his electronic devices including phones and computer. It was not clear where his trial took place or how long it lasted.
According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Saudi authorities maintained that Al-Jasser was behind a social media account on X, formerly Twitter, that levied corruption allegations against Saudi royals. Al-Jasser was also said to have posted several controversial tweets about militants and militant groups.
Al-Jasser ran a personal blog from 2013 to 2015 and was well-known for his articles on the Arab Spring movements that shook the Middle East in 2011, women's rights and corruption.
Activist groups have condemned the execution, insisting the charges were fabricated to silence dissent.
CPJ's program director Carlos Martínez de la Serna condemned the execution and said the lack of accountability in the wake of the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018 allows for continued persecution of journalists in the kingdom.
A Saudi assassination team killed Khashoggi at the consulate in Istanbul. The US intelligence community concluded that the Saudi crown prince ordered the operation but the kingdom insists the prince was not involved in the killing.
Saudi Arabia has drawn criticism from human rights groups for its numbers and also methods of capital punishment, including beheadings and mass executions. In 2024, executions in Saudi Arabia rose to 330, according to activists and human rights groups, as the kingdom continues to tightly clamp down on dissent.
Last month, a British Bank of America analyst was sentenced to a decade in prison in Saudi Arabia, apparently over a since-deleted social media post, according to his lawyer.
In 2021, a dual Saudi American national, Saad Almadi, was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison on terrorism-related charges stemming from tweets he had posted while living in the United States. He was released in 2023 but has been banned from leaving the kingdom.
(With inputs from agencies)
First Published:
June 16, 2025, 21:44 IST
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