A well-known Saudi Arabian journalist, who was arrested in 2018 and convicted on terrorism and treason charges, has been executed. Activist groups say that the charges against him were made up, while the kingdom states that journalist Turki Al-Jasser was put to death on Saturday on substantial grounds. News from the official Saudi Press Agency states that after the death penalty was upheld by the nation’s top courts, persecution of the journalist completed on Saturday after authorities raided his home in 2018 and arrested him. During that time, the authorities also seized his computer and phone.

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia maintained that Al-Jasser was behind the social media account on X that levied corruption allegations against the Saudi royals. He also reportedly posted several controversial tweets about militants and militant groups in the country and around the Middle East.

International Attention

CPJ’s Program Director, Carlos Martinez de la Serna, states that after the government failed to take accountability for the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, continued persecution of journalists in the kingdom has not stopped.

Al-Jasser ran a personal blog between 2013 to 2015 and was well known for his articles on the Arab Spring movement that shook the Middle East in 2011, women’s rights, and corruption in the kingdom.