A Tweet Can Land A Saudi In Prison
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — One day in November 2015, Saad Almadi typed a 14-word post on Twitter about Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince.
“Mohammed bin Salman has taken over the economy, defense and everything under the king,” he wrote, replying to a professor who is a fierce critic of the kingdom’s monarchy.
A Saudi-American dual citizen living in Florida, Mr. Almadi had little reason to believe his post would attract attention. He was a retired project manager, not an activist, and his words were largely factual — Prince Mohammed had taken control of many of the levers of power since his father became king that year.
Yet the tweet resurfaced as evidence seven years later when Mr. Almadi, 72, was arrested during a visit to Saudi Arabia. Along with other Twitter posts he wrote that were critical of the Saudi government, the tweet was cited as proof that he had “adopted a terrorist agenda by defaming symbols of the state,” according to court documents.
His prosecutor requested a severe punishment, “to rebuke him and deter others.” In October, Mr. Almadi was sentenced to 16 years in prison, lengthened on February 8 to 19 years after he appealed.
Ten years ago, Mr. Almadi’s Twitter account, which has fewer than 2,000 followers, might have prompted a warning. But under Prince Mohammed, now prime minister, harsher punishments are being meted out to citizens who criticize their government.
“My father is nowhere near being a dissident,” said Mr. Almadi’s son, Ibrahim Almadi.
“The scope of oppression really is unprecedented,” said Hala Aldosari, a women’s rights activist who left Saudi Arabia in 2014 for a fellowship in America and said she never felt safe enough to return.
Since then, Prince Mohammed has launched an ambitious plan to diversify the oil-dependent economy and ended many religious and social restrictions. “The people are being shut down or silenced in return for giving them certain rights,” Ms. Aldosari said.
Noura al-Qahtani was among several people put on trial last year in relation to social media activity. On her anonymous Twitter account, where she had roughly 600 followers, she called for antigovernment protests and wrote that Prince Mohammed was “not good enough to be a prince.” A court sentenced her to 13 years in prison. On appeal, the judges increased her sentence to 45 years in prison.
A Saudi official said in a statement that the government was studying and putting new measures in place to enhance human rights. But Saudi Arabia “maintains a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to terrorism,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with government protocol.
Until recently, prison sentences longer than 20 years were rare, and Saudis with U.S. citizenship or ties to local elites, like Mr. Almadi, would have been able to draw on connections to protect themselves.
“One of the merits of Mohammed bin Salman is that he’s created equality of injustice for all,” said Taha al-Hajji, a Saudi lawyer who lives in exile in Germany.