Saudi Arabia uses laws to criminalize the exercise of legitimate rights. In addition to its misuse of the Law on Combating Terrorism Crimes and its Financing and stigmatizing activists as terrorists to justify targeting them, it uses the Law on Combating Information Crimes to restrict freedom of expression, criminalizes the legitimate use of the Internet and adds disciplinary penalties to it.
In recent years, the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights has monitored the widespread use of this law in very harsh and unprecedented sentences against male and female activists. An analysis of judgments and indictments of individuals facing the death penalty shows that the law is used to criminalize them, especially through Article 6 of the Anti-Information Crimes Law, which contains loose phrases and states that information crimes include: “Producing something that would prejudice public order, religious values, or public morals, or the sanctity of private life, or prepare it, or send it, or store it through the information network, or a computer.”
In addition, the charges contained in court documents show that the Saudi government seeks, through judgments and trials, to criminalize any use of the Internet and social media.
There is no transparency in the Saudi government's handling of trials, and there is no role for civil society and organisations in monitoring them. However, the documentation of many cases shows gross violations of international laws, including torture, extracting confessions, and deprivation of the right to self-defence. These impurities, which are considered a deprivation of the most basic conditions of fair trials, end in harsh sentences, usually based on many charges, most of which are considered to be the exercise of the most basic rights and the criminalisation of them. ESOHR outlines here some of the charges that have led to harsh and appalling sentences in some cases:
- Noura al-Qahtani: She was sentenced to 45 years in prison and a 45-year travel ban in August 2022. She was charged with: preparing, publishing, and storing what “would prejudice public order through the information network and seek to destabilize the social fabric and national cohesion.” In addition, charges related to publishing tweets through Social media are an insult to the symbols of the state.
- Salma al-Shehab: She was sentenced to 34 years in prison and a 34-year travel ban in August 2022, on charges like spreading false and malicious rumours by writing and publishing tweets through her Twitter account to disturb public order and undermine public security.”
- Israa al-Ghomgham: The Public Prosecution has demanded the death penalty for her before sentencing her to 8 years in prison and increasing it to 10 years. She faced several charges that were framed as crimes even though they were legitimate practices:
- Participating in riotous mob rallies and rallies in Qatif Governorate, repeating anti-state phrases, organising and arranging them, inciting young people to go out in those rallies and assemblies, photographing the gatherings, documenting them, and publishing them on the social networking site Facebook.
- Preparing, sending, and storing anything that might harm public order through creating an account on social media and using it to incite riotous marches and gatherings, incite against the state, and publish photos and videos of the marches.
- Creating a YouTube channel and using it to publish videos of its production.
- Sheikh Hassan al-Maliki: The Public Prosecution is calling for the death penalty for him, on charges including:
- He conducted many television interviews with Western newspapers and interviews on channels hostile to the King, through which he attacked the rulers and spread his opposing ideas.
- Authored several books and research that support his ideas
- Preparing, storing and sending anything that would prejudice public order and religious values that are forbidden in the system of combating information crimes by launching incitements that include questioning the constants of religion.
- Mustafa al-Darwish: Saudi Arabia executed him by taazir on June 16, 2021. Among the charges on which he was executed: “Disgracing something that would prejudice public order is criminal and punishable under Article Six, Paragraph 1 of the Anti-Cybercrime Law, by receiving messages on a BlackBerry device that include identification Times and places of gatherings of rioters in Qatif.
- Muhammad al-Shakhouri: He was executed in March 2022 after he faced several charges, including those related only to the use of means of communication, such as: preparing and storing something that would prejudice public order and public morals. He is a criminal and punishable under Article Six of the Anti-Cybercrime Law by using the WhatsApp and Zello programs to join a terrorist group and possessing on a computer a picture containing offensive phrases to the rulers and a picture of women holding banners with pictures of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and wanted persons.
In recent years, legal analyses have confirmed that Saudi Arabia uses the Anti-Terrorism Law to prosecute activists. In addition, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights indicated that this law “aims to limit basic freedoms and core principles of international human rights law” as “it may be used to tighten restrictions on the legitimate and internationally protected activities of certain political or religious groups.” An analysis of the 2017 amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Law considered that it undermines the few remaining human rights in Saudi Arabia.
ESOHR's documentation and analysis of several provisions confirm that Saudi Arabia was not satisfied with the pretext of combating terrorism and the law it drafted for that with all its impurities, but rather devoted other laws to criminalizing legitimate practices. ESOHR believes that Saudi Arabia uses laws in a way that abuses and criminalizes fundamental human rights, including the use of the information network for storage, communication and expression of opinion. ESOHR considers that the harsh sentences, including the death penalty and long prison sentences, which have recently intensified on charges related to the use of the Internet and social media, are a clear indication of the attempts to close society, and the severity of the oppression it faces.