BY PC Bureau
June 15, 2025 —Saudi Arabia has executed Turki Al-Jasser, a prominent journalist and critic of the regime, drawing sharp criticism from human rights advocates and press freedom organizations. The execution, announced by the state-run Saudi Press Agency on Saturday, follows his 2018 arrest on charges of terrorism and treason—charges that rights groups have long claimed were politically motivated.
Al-Jasser, aged in his late 40s, was reportedly detained after security forces raided his home, confiscating his digital devices. Despite the seriousness of the charges, authorities provided no public details about the trial process, its duration, or where it was held.
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According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Saudi authorities accused Al-Jasser of operating a pseudonymous X (formerly Twitter) account that published allegations of corruption involving high-ranking Saudi royals and controversial commentary on militant groups. These posts reportedly led to his arrest and death sentence.
After Seven Years of Detention… Saudi Arabia Executes Journalist #Turki_Al_Jasser pic.twitter.com/SQprMiczma
— SANAD Organisation (@SANAD_en) June 14, 2025
Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s Program Director, strongly condemned the execution. “The international community’s failure to secure justice for Jamal Khashoggi did not just betray one journalist—it emboldened Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to deepen his crackdown on dissent,” he said, referencing the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
The execution comes amid growing concern over a wider pattern of repression in the kingdom. Last month, a British Bank of America analyst received a 10-year prison sentence for a now-deleted social media post. In 2021, dual Saudi-American citizen Saad Almadi was sentenced to over 19 years in prison for tweets he made while residing in the U.S. Although released in 2023, Almadi remains barred from leaving Saudi Arabia.
Al-Jasser’s death raises new alarms over Saudi Arabia’s use of harsh penalties to silence dissent and intimidate critics, further straining its international image despite efforts to portray itself as a modernizing force in the Middle East.
