Saudi court overturns death sentence against retired teacher over posts on X
A Saudi court has overturned the death sentence of a former teacher over social media posts made from anonymous accounts with 10 followers, a UK-based human rights group has reported.
Last July, the kingdom's Specialised Criminal Court gave Mohammed al-Ghamdi the death sentence over tweets, including some which focused on unemployment and calling for the release of political prisoners.
On Wednesday, Sanad, a UK-based group advocating for Ghamdi, said it had learned from sources inside the kingdom that the Court of Appeal had cancelled the sentence.
"No new sentence has been issued against him yet," the organisation said.
Samer al-Shumrani, Sanad's operations manager, told Middle East Eye that the appeal court's decision was "a correct measure", one he believes happened as a result of pressure from the UN and also from rights groups and activists.
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Last month, UN experts said they had concluded that Ghamdi was being held arbitrarily and called for his immediate release.
"The arrest of Mohammed al-Ghamdi was arbitrary and illegal. He should not have been tried. However, his trial was unfair and unjust," Shumrani said.
'The most important thing now is that he should be released immediately'
- Samer al-Shumrani, Sanad
"The most important thing now is that he should be released immediately, as called for by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention."
Ghamdi's brother, Asaad al-Ghamdi, also a teacher, was sentenced to 20 years over his posts on X in May.
Their brother, Saeed Nasser al-Ghamdi, is a prominent religious scholar and Saudi Arabian opposition figure living in London who believes his siblings have been targeted as a result of his activism.
"Saudi authorities asked me several times to return to Saudi Arabia, but I refused to do so," he said last month.
"It is very probable that these sentences against my brothers are in retaliation for my activity. Otherwise, his charges wouldn't have carried such a severe penalty."
In an interview with Fox News last September, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman acknowledged that Mohammed al-Ghamdi had been a victim of "bad laws", which he said should be changed.
"Shamefully, it's true," the crown prince said of Ghamdi's death sentence. "It's something I don't like."
However, rights advocates have pointed out that the counterterrorism law under which Ghamdi was tried was part of sweeping reforms the crown prince instigated when he rose to power.
Over the past three years, an unknown number of Saudi Arabians have been imprisoned for speaking out on social media, with some who have been handed extreme sentences.
Lina al-Hathoul, head of monitoring and advocacy at the UK-based human rights group Alqst, told MEE last month that their organisation is currently following at least 200 such cases.
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