Wednesday, October 16, 2024 - A Saudi artist has reportedly been sentenced to more than two decades in prison over political cartoons that allegedly insulted the Gulf kingdom's leadership.
Father of five, Mohammed al-Hazza, 48, was arrested in
February 2018 in Saudi Arabia during 'a violent raid' in which security forces
entered his home and ransacked his studio, the London-based Sanad Human Rights
Organisation said in a statement.
A court document seen by AFP says the charges against him
concern 'offensive cartoons' he produced for the Qatari newspaper Lusail as
well as social media posts that were allegedly 'hostile' to Saudi Arabia and
supportive of Qatar.
Saudi Arabia's Specialised Criminal Court, set up in 2008 to
deal with terrorism-related cases, initially sentenced Hazza to six years in
prison.
But this year, as Hazza was preparing to be released, the
case was re-opened and he was sentenced to 23 years, his sister Asrar al-Hazza
told AFP by phone from the United States.
'He was almost there... He almost left the prison. But then
out of nowhere it was opened again and it was 23 years,' she said.
Saudi authorities did not immediately respond to a request
for comment about the case on Wednesday.
Sanad said in its statement that Hazza worked for Lusail
mostly before the 2017 boycott 'and only briefly afterward' and that most of
his cartoons concerned domestic Qatari issues.
The group said prosecutors failed to provide evidence of
cartoons that were offensive to Saudi Arabia or social media posts that backed
Qatar during the boycott.
Under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has
been criticised for what activists describe as a fierce crackdown on even
vaguely critical online speech.
In the past two years, the Saudi judiciary has 'convicted
and handed down lengthy prison terms on dozens of individuals for their
expression on social media', human rights groups Amnesty International and
ALQST said in April.
Saudi officials say the accused committed terrorism-related
offences.
'The case of Mohammed al-Hazza is one example of the
suppression of freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia, which has not spared
anyone, including artists,' Sanad operations manager Samer Alshumrani told AFP.
‘This is supported by the politicised, non-independent
judiciary in Saudi Arabia.’
Al-Hazza's sentence comes days after Saudi Arabia was denied
a seat on the UN's Human Rights Council.
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