The authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) have released journalist Jamil Farsi after the end of his seven-year prison sentence.
On Thursday, October 31, the Prisoners of Conscience, confirmed the authenticity of the news on X, saying, “Confirmed to us that Mr. Jamil Farsi, one of the detainees from the September 2017 arrest campaign, has been released after completing his 7-year sentence.”
“We congratulate Farsi and his honorable family for his release, and we congratulate all prisoners of conscience,” it added.
In September 2017, Farsi was arrested as part of the Saudi government’s campaign to suppress all dissenting voices in the Kingdom.
Farsi, a vocal advocate for political prisoners’ rights, was arbitrarily detained and locked up by authorities following his tweets, highlighting their plight.
His only offence was opposing normalization with the Israeli occupation and criticizing Aramco’s international market purchase, which Saudi authorities viewed as a threat to their nation’s stability and security.
According to a report by the SANAD Organisation for Human Rights, Farsi was initially sentenced to five years in prison, but his sentence was later increased to seven years without any legal justification.
In prison, Farsi experienced mistreatment, family restrictions, and an unfair secret trial, violating his basic rights of litigation.
This is not the first time the kingdom has punished someone for using social media.
Since Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, became the Saudi Crown Prince in June 2017, dozens of imams, women’s rights activists and members of the ruling royal family have been detained.
In August 2022, a woman named Salma Al-Shehab was sentenced to 34 years in prison for having a Twitter account and for posting tweets about activists and critics of the Mohammed bin Salman regime.
Among those arrested are prominent Islamic preachers Salman al-Awdah, Awad al-Qarni, Farhan al-Malki, Mostafa Hassan and Safar al-Hawali.
