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A Saudi artist has been sentenced to greater than 20 years in jail for political cartoons that allegedly insulted the Gulf kingdom’s management, his sister and a human rights group mentioned this week.
The case in opposition to Mohammed al-Hazza, 48, provides to issues about freedom of expression below Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude oil exporter, seeks to confide in vacationers and traders after of years of isolation.
The daddy of 5 was arrested in February 2018 in Saudi Arabia throughout “a violent raid” by which safety forces entered his residence and ransacked his studio, the Saudi-based human rights group Sanad mentioned in a press release. London.
A court docket doc says the fees in opposition to him concern “offensive cartoons” he produced for the Qatari newspaper Lusail, in addition to social media posts that had been allegedly “hostile” towards Saudi Arabia and supportive of Qatar.
Hazza’s arrest got here lower than a 12 months after Saudi Arabia and several other allies reduce ties with Qatar, alleging it supported extremists and was too near Iran, accusations Doha denied.
The international locations repaired their ties in January 2021.
Saudi Arabia’s Specialised Felony Courtroom, created in 2008 to take care of terrorism-related instances, initially sentenced Mr. Hazza to 6 years in jail.
However this 12 months, as Hazza ready to be launched, the case was reopened and he was sentenced to 23 years, his sister Asrar al-Hazza mentioned by cellphone from the USA.
“He was virtually there… He virtually obtained out of jail. However then, out of nowhere, it opened up once more and it was 23 years,” he mentioned.
Saudi authorities didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the case on Wednesday. Sanad mentioned in his assertion that Hazza labored for Lusail primarily earlier than the 2017 boycott “and solely briefly after” and that almost all of his cartoons involved Qatar’s inner points.
The group mentioned prosecutors didn’t present proof of cartoons that had been offensive to Saudi Arabia or social media posts that supported Qatar throughout the boycott.
Below Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia has been criticized for what activists describe as a fierce crackdown on even vaguely vital on-line speech.
Over the previous two years, the Saudi judiciary has “convicted and handed down lengthy jail sentences to dozens of individuals for his or her expression on social media,” human rights teams Amnesty Worldwide and ALQST mentioned in April.
Saudi officers say the defendants dedicated terrorism-related crimes.
“The case of Mohammed al-Hazza is an instance of the suppression of freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia, which has not spared anybody, together with artists,” Sanad operations director Samer Alshumrani advised AFP.
“That is supported by Saudi Arabia’s politicized and non-independent judiciary.”
Printed – October 17, 2024 03:06 am IST
