Journalists and media actors hold states, government officials, corporations and society at large accountable for their actions. But far too many among them are attacked, persecuted, harassed, or intimidated for carrying out their work, while the perpetrators of these attacks often act with total impunity.
While free expression has historically been repressed in Saudi Arabia, and analogue publications restricted by the 2000 Law of Printing and Publication, updated in 2003, the 2007 Anti-Cybercrime Law built a new framework to suppress free speech online. The vague provisions of the law are frequently used to charge and try journalists and ordinary citizens for expressing their opinions in online publications or on social media.
ALQST continues to document a wide range of violations against journalists. A general climate of fear and intimidation for freely expressing opinions or challenging the state narrative prevails, with many journalists facing legal prosecution and long prison sentences, and some paying with their lives, merely for carrying out their work. The following are just a few examples of what has happened to journalists in Saudi Arabia in recent years.
On 1 June 2018, security forces arrested Yemeni journalist Marwan al-Muraisy from his home and transferred him to an unknown location. Al-Muraisy’s family have been denied information about the charges against him, the location where he is being held and are unable to visit him. He was only able to contact his family for the first time in May 2019, after almost a year of enforced disappearance. He remains in prison and has not been tried to this date, and is without access to a lawyer and denied family visits.
On 6 June 2018, writer and women’s rights activist Nouf Abdulaziz was arrested for expressing solidarity with the detained activists. In detention, she has been subjected to brutal torture and sexual assault. She was summoned to court, along with other women’s rights activists, in March 2019, and the trial keeps being delayed for unknown reasons. She remains detained to this day.
On 2 October 2018, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he was assassinated and dismembered by a team of Saudi agents. His body has never been found. The Saudi authorities at first denied the killing and obstructed all investigation of the crime, but then prosecuted 11 unidentified people in a trial widely criticised for lacking all transparency and accountability. Despite the conclusion of the CIA, other Western intelligence agencies and the findings of the investigation by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions, Agnès Callamard that clearly implicating Mohammed bin Salman and his close entourage in the killing, the Crown Prince’s responsibility was not even addressed in court and the other officials were exonerated. In September 2020, the Criminal Court in Riyadh commuted five death sentences to long prison terms and handed down jail sentences to three other unnamed defendants before declaring the case finally closed.
On 4 and 9 April 2019, the Saudi authorities arrested at least 14 bloggers, writers and family members of women human rights defenders. They included Salah al-Haidar and writer Bader al-Ibrahim, both American citizens as well as Mohammed al-Sadiq, Thamar al-Marzouqi, Abdullah al-Duhailan, Moqbel al-Saqqar, Ali al-Saffar, Redha al-Bouri, Nayef al-Hindas and Khadija al-Harbi. The people detained in April were were activists, writers or social media bloggers who had previously engaged in public discourse on reforms. Their arrests appeared to be linked to their support for or connection with the women activists, and illustrated yet again the Saudi authorities’ brazen disregard for the fundamental right to freedom of expression and opinion.
On 19 July 2020 Saudi journalist Saleh al-Shehi, died under mysterious circumstances just two months after his unexpected release from prison. Saleh al-Shehi, a well-known newspaper columnist, was arrested in January 2018 and put on trial before the Specialised Criminal Court, where he was charged, convicted and sentenced in a single session on 8 February to five years in prison. He was charged with “insulting the royal court” after criticising Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s so-called anti-corruption drive.
On 19 May 2020, after serving two and a half years of his five-year sentence, al-Shehi was unexpectedly released. The terms of his release are unknown, including whether it was to be permanent or temporary. In June 2020 al-Shehi was transferred to intensive care in hospital, and he died on 19 July. The Saudi authorities have reported that he died from Covid-19; however his death, like the circumstances of his release, remains highly ambiguous.
On this day dedicated to the end of impunity for crimes against journalists, ALQST pays tribute to all those who lost their lives and suffered attacks in the exercise of their freedom of expression online and offline. We further call for the release of all journalists arbitrarily detained in Saudi Arabia and demand an independent investigation into the death of Saleh al-Shehi as well as meaningful steps towards accountability for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
