In 2018, the Saudi authorities invaded Al-Asser’s house, holding it and seizing your computer and phones
A prominent Saudi journalist, detained in 2018 and convicted of terrorism and betrayal, was executed in Saudi Arabia, the authority of this country said today, while activists say the accusations against Turki Al-Asser were forged.
Turki al-Assser was sentenced to death on Saturday, according to the official Saudi press agency, after the death penalty was confirmed by the country’s Superior Court.
In 2018, the Saudi authorities broke into Al-Asser’s house, holding it and seizing your computer and phones.
According to the Associated Press, it was unclear where its judgment was due or how long it lasted.
The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), headquartered in New York, said that the Saudi authorities maintained that Al-Asser was behind an account on social networks X, former Twitter, who made corruption charges against Saudi royalty. Al-Rasser would also have published several controversial ‘tweets’ on militants and militant groups.
CPJ program director Carlos Martinez de la Serna condemned the execution and said the lack of responsibility following the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018, “allows the continuous persecution of journalists in the kingdom.”
“The failure of the international community to do justice to Jamal Khashoggi has not just betrayed a journalist,” said the official, adding that “he encouraged the de facto heir prince Mohammed Bin Salman to continue his persecution of the press.”
A team of Saudi killers killed Jamal Khashoggi at the consulate in Istanbul. US secret services concluded that the Saudi heir prince ordered the operation, but the kingdom insists that the prince was not involved in the murder.
Al-Rasser maintained a personal blog from 2013 to 2015 and was known for his articles on the Arab Spring movements that shook the Middle East in 2011, women’s rights and corruption.
Saudi Arabia has been the target of criticism from human rights groups due to their numbers and methods of capital penalty, including beheading and mass executions.
In 2024, executions in Saudi Arabia increased to 330, according to activists and human rights defense groups, as the kingdom continues to firmly repress dissent.
Last month, a British Bank of America analyst was sentenced to a decade of prison in Saudi Arabia, apparently because of a social media publication since then, according to his lawyer.
And in 2021, a citizen with double Saudi-American nationality, Saad Almadi, was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison on terrorism-related accusations resulting from ‘tweets’ he published as he lived in the United States.
It was released in 2023, but was forbidden to leave the kingdom.
