Latest news with #TurkiAlJasser
Arab News
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Saudi analyst tells Al Arabiya news that Turki Al-Jasser was a ‘terrorist' and ‘traitor'
RIYADH: Salman Al-Ansari, a renowned Saudi political analyst, said during an interview with news channel Al Arabiya that Turki Al-Jasser, who was arrested in 2018 and executed last Saturday, was not a journalist, as many posts on social media accounts claimed after his death was announced. Al-Jasser was 'literally a terrorist (and) a traitor, and he had nothing to do with journalism,' Al-Ansari said. Media reports describing him as a journalist were a 'fabrication,' he added. During the interview, Al-Ansari told Al Arabiya his sources had confirmed Al-Jasser worked for a 'sensitive government agency' and had access to classified information. He added that Al-Jasser had been involved 'in the planning and financing of terrorism.' Saudi Affairs Expert @Salansar1 rejects claims that terrorism convict Turki al-Jasser was a journalist. He shares new details in an interview on Al Arabiya English's W News. — Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) June 20, 2025
CTV News
12 hours ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Saudi Arabia executes journalist over terrorism, treason allegations
Workers take down a giant Saudi flag at King Abdullah Square, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) Dubai, United Arab Emirates -- Human rights groups and press freedom advocates have criticised Saudi Arabia's execution of an imprisoned journalist over the weekend, the latest in a flurry of death sentences enacted in the kingdom. Saudi journalist Turki al-Jasser was executed on Saturday, authorities said. He was arrested in 2018 and tried for terrorism, treason and endangering national security. Jasser was a well-known journalist and blogger who had covered issues including women's rights, the Arab Spring revolts and corruption while working for the now defunct Al-Taqrir paper, according to media rights group the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). 'We are outraged by Saudi Arabia's execution of prominent journalist Turki al-Jasser, who was detained for seven years because the regime believed he reported on allegations of corruption within the Saudi royal family,' said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, the CPJ's chief programmes officer. The London-based NGO ALQST, which monitors rights in Saudi Arabia, panned the execution on Monday, saying the use of capital punishment 'dramatically illustrates the lengths the Saudi authorities will go to, to suppress peaceful dissent'. The group decried 'the lack of transparency around Jasser's case', arguing that it 'reinforces concerns long raised by NGOs that the true number of individuals at risk of execution -- and indeed the true scale of rights abuses in Saudi Arabia overall -- is in fact greater than is publicly known'. Other rights groups and advocates including foreign-based opposition to the Saudi government have condemned Jasser's execution. Saudi Arabia is one of the world's most prolific users of the death penalty and has already executed more than 100 people so far this year, according to an AFP tally. The kingdom drew global notoriety after the 2018 murder and dismemberment of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a government critic, at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Under its de-facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia is spending big on tourist infrastructure and top sports events such as the 2034 World Cup as it tries to diversify its oil-reliant economy. But activists say the kingdom's continued embrace of capital punishment undermines the image of a more open, tolerant society that is central to Prince Mohammed's Vision 2030 reform agenda. Saudi authorities say the death penalty is necessary to maintain public order and is only used after all avenues for appeal have been exhausted.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Saudi journalist is executed 'after years of torture' for writing a TWEET - in first high-profile killing of a reporter since Jamal Khashoggi
A prominent Saudi journalist who was arrested in 2018 and convicted on terrorism and treason charges after tweeting against the government has been executed. Turki Al-Jasser, who was in his late 40s, was put to death on Saturday, according to the official Saudi Press Agency, after the death penalty was upheld by the nation's top court. Authorities had raided Al-Jasser's home in 2018, arresting him and seizing his computer and phones. It was not clear where his trial took place or how long it lasted, but he is believed to have been tortured during his seven-year imprisonment, The Guardian reports. According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Saudi authorities believed that Al-Jasser was behind a social media account on X which exposed human rights violations by officials and the royals. Al-Jasser was also said to have posted several controversial tweets about militants and militant groups. CPJ's program director Carlos Martínez de la Serna condemned the execution and said the lack of accountability allows for continued persecution of journalists in the kingdom. It comes after Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was slaughtered in 2018 by agents of the Saudi government at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. In the months that followed, conflicting narratives emerged over how he died, and Saudi officials said the journalist was killed in a 'rogue operation' by a team of agents sent to persuade him to return to the kingdom. The U.S. intelligence community concluded that the Saudi crown prince ordered the operation but the kingdom insists the prince was not involved in the killing. 'The international community's failure to deliver justice for Jamal Khashoggi did not just betray one journalist,' Martinez de la Serna said, adding it had 'emboldened de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to continue his persecution of the press.' 'Al-Jasser's 'execution once again demonstrates that in Saudi Arabia, the punishment for criticizing or questioning Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is death,' said Jeed Basyouni, head of the Middle East and North Africa section at Reprieve, an international anti-death penalty advocacy group. Basyouni added that Al-Jasser was tried and convicted 'in total secrecy for the 'crime' of journalism.' Al-Jasser ran a personal blog from 2013 to 2015 and was well-known for his articles on the Arab Spring movements that shook the Middle East in 2011, women's rights and corruption. Saudi Arabia has drawn criticism from human rights groups for its numbers and also methods of capital punishment, including beheadings and mass executions. In 2024, executions in Saudi Arabia rose to 330, according to activists and human rights groups, as the kingdom continues to tightly clamp down on dissent. Last month, a British Bank of America analyst was sentenced to a decade in prison in Saudi Arabia, apparently over a since-deleted social media post, according to his lawyer. And in 2021, a dual Saudi American national, Saad Almadi, was arrested and later sentenced to more than 19 years in prison on terrorism-related charges stemming from tweets he had posted while living in the United States. He was released in 2023 but has been banned from leaving the kingdom.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
A Saudi journalist tweeted against the government – and was executed for ‘high treason'
The tweet posted by Saudi journalist Turki al-Jasser in 2014 was chillingly prescient: 'The Arab writer can be easily killed by their government under the pretext of 'national security',' he wrote. On Saturday, the Saudi interior ministry announced that al-Jasser had been executed in Riyadh, for crimes including 'high treason by communicating with and conspiring against the security of the Kingdom with individuals outside it'. Al-Jasser is believed to have been in his 40s and the execution – which in most cases in Saudi is carried out by beheading with a sword – followed seven years of detention. Dissidents who spoke to the Guardian alleged he was subjected to torture during his imprisonment. It was the first high-profile killing of a journalist by the Saudi state since the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist and prominent critic of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman who was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and murdered by Saudi agents. A UN report concluded that the murder was an extrajudicial killing by the state, and an intelligence assessment released by then president Joe Biden in 2020 concluded that bin Salman approved the murder. But the circumstances around that murder and al-Jasser's killing, and the international response to it, are markedly different. Most dissidents and experts who followed al-Jasser's case say he was likely detained by Saudi authorities in 2018 after being identified as the writer behind a popular anonymous Twitter account that accused the Saudi royal family of alleged corruption and human rights abuses. In public, al-Jasser was the founder of the news blog Al-Mashhad Al-Saudi (The Saudi Scene), which press freedom group Reporters without Borders said regularly addressed topics such as women's rights and Palestine. But it was the account on what was then known as Twitter (and now as X) that is believed to have riled Saudi authorities and led to his arrest during a broader crackdown on dissent. 'Turki had two Twitter accounts. While he was vocal using his real name, he was even more satirical and vocal with the other account, which was in the crosshairs of the Saudi government,' says Abdullah Alaoudh, senior director for countering authoritarianism at Middle East Democracy Center. 'The government assumed his and other anonymous Twitter accounts were part of a coordinated effort and delusional conspiracy to topple the Saudi government.' The Saudi government gained access to the real identities and IP addresses behind thousands of anonymous Twitter accounts following Saudi agents' infiltration of the company in 2014-2015. The Department of Justice charged two former Twitter employees and a Saudi national in the plot. Ahmad Abouammo was found guilty by a federal jury of fraud, conspiracy, acting as a foreign agent for bribes, and conveying user information to the kingdom on behalf of the royal family. At the time, assistant attorney general Matthew Olsen of the justice department's national security division, said the guilty verdict showed the justice department would hold accountable anyone who aids 'hostile regimes in extending their reach to our shores'. Two other indicted men fled to Saudi before they could be arrested. A Twitter spokesperson said in 2021 that it acted swiftly at the time of the incident when it learned there were malicious actors accessing Twitter user data. That view has been challenged by the family of another man who was arrested after the Twitter breach, who believe the social media platform is at least partly responsible for dissidents' arrests. Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, a former aide worker, was arrested in 2018 and sentenced three years later to 20 years in prison and a 20-year travel ban. He is alleged to have maintained an anonymous account that mocked the kingdom's leaders. 'They broke his hand, smashed his fingers, saying this is the hand you tweet with,' Areej al-Sadhan told CBS News in a 2023 interview. 'They tortured him with electric shocks, beating and sleep deprivation.' Reporters without Borders said al-Jasser was the first journalist to be sentenced to death and executed in Saudi under the rule of Mohammed bin Salman, and the second in the world since 2020, when Amadnews director Ruhollah Zam was put to death in Iran. The state department did not respond to a request for comment. When the Saudi crown prince was asked by Fox News's Brett Baier in 2023 about a case in which a Saudi court sentenced a man – Mohammed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi – to death for posts on X and his YouTube activity, bin Salman blamed 'laws' in the kingdom and said he was doing his best to 'change them'. 'Do we have bad laws? Yes. We are changing that, yes,' he said. Asked whether al-Ghamdi would ultimately be killed bin Salman said: 'I'm hoping that in the next phase of trials, the judge there is more experienced, and they might look at it totally different.' Al-Ghamdi's death sentence was later commuted. Legal scholars have pointed out that the crown prince could legally have intervened in al-Jasser's own execution. Under Saudi law the crown prince or the king must approve every execution. The Saudi government has been approached for comment. 'With Jasser's execution, Mohammed bin Salman has once again shown us that he remains a vindictive, thin-skinned tyrant who kills people who criticize him,' said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Dawn, a pro-democracy group founded by Khashoggi. 'He has weaponized the Saudi judiciary to prosecute and execute a Saudi man under the country's bogus counter-terrorism law exclusively because of his critical commentary about the country on social media. Western governments are eager to pretend that MBS has morphed into some kind of reputable statesman, but it's hard to reform a sociopathic autocrat with zero domestic guardrails.'
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Saudi Arabia executes a journalist after 7 years in prison
A prominent Saudi journalist who was arrested in 2018 and convicted on terrorism and treason charges has been executed, the kingdom said. Activist groups maintain that the charges against him were trumped up. Turki Al-Jasser was put to death on Saturday, according to the official Saudi Press Agency, after the death penalty was upheld by the nation's top court. Authorities had raided Al-Jasser's home in 2018, arresting him and seizing his computer and phones. It was not clear where his trial took place or how long it lasted. According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Saudi authorities maintained that Al-Jasser was behind a social media account on X, formerly Twitter, that levied corruption allegations against Saudi royals. Al-Jasser was also said to have posted several controversial tweets about militants and militant groups. CPJ's programme director Carlos Martínez de la Serna condemned the execution and said the lack of accountability in the wake of the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 allows for continued persecution of journalists in the kingdom. An undated picture of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi before his murder. Photo: AFP 'The international community's failure to deliver justice for Jamal Khashoggi did not just betray one journalist,' he said, adding it had 'emboldened de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to continue his persecution of the press.'
