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A Saudi artist has been sentenced to more than two decades in prison for political cartoons that allegedly insulted the Gulf state’s leadership, his sister and a rights group said this week.
The case against Mohammed al-Hazza, 48, adds to concerns about freedom of expression under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as Saudi Arabia – the world’s largest crude oil exporter – reopens to tourists and investors after years of isolation. Wants to open.
The father of five was arrested in Saudi Arabia in February 2018 during “a violent raid” in which security forces entered his home and ransacked his studio, the London-based Sanad human rights organization said in a statement.
A court document said the charges against him relate to “offensive cartoons” he made for the Qatari newspaper Lusail, as well as social media posts that were allegedly “hostile” to Saudi Arabia and pro-Qatar.
Mr Hazza’s arrest comes less than a year after Saudi Arabia and several allies cut ties with Qatar, claiming it supports extremists and is too close to Iran – allegations Doha denies. Did.
The countries improved relations in January 2021.
Saudi Arabia’s Special Criminal Court, established in 2008 to deal with terrorism-related cases, had initially sentenced Mr. Hazza to six years in prison.
But this year, as Mr. Hazza was preparing to be released, the case was reopened and he was sentenced to 23 years in prison, his sister Asrar al-Hazza said by phone from the United States.
“He almost got there…he almost left prison. But suddenly he was reopened and it’s been 23 years,” he said.
Saudi officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the case on Wednesday. Sanad said in its statement that Mr. Hazza worked mostly for Lusail before the 2017 boycott “and only briefly after” and that most of his cartoons were related to domestic Qatari issues.
The group said prosecutors failed to provide evidence of cartoons that were insulting to Saudi Arabia or social media posts that supported Qatar during the boycott.
Under Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia has been criticized for what activists have described as a fierce crackdown on even vaguely critical online speech.
Over the past two years the Saudi judiciary “has convicted and sentenced dozens of individuals to lengthy prison terms for their expression on social media”, human rights groups Amnesty International and ALQST said in April.
Saudi officials say the accused have committed terrorism-related crimes.
“Mohammad al-Hajja’s case is an example of the repression of freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia, which has spared no one, including artists,” Sanad operations manager Samir Alshumrani told AFP.
“This is supported by the politicized, non-independent judiciary in Saudi Arabia.”
published – October 17, 2024 03:06 am IST