SAUDI ARABIA: COURT OVERTURNS DEATH SENTENCE AGAINST RETIRED TEACHER OVER POSTS ON X

September 25, 2024:

A Saudi court has overturned the death sentence of a former teacher over social media posts made from anonymous accounts with 10 followers, a UK-based human rights group reported on August 7, 2024.
The kingdom's Specialised Criminal Court gave Mohammed al-Ghamdi the death sentence in July 2023 over tweets, including some which focused on unemployment and calling for the release of political prisoners.
On August 7, Sanad, a UK-based group advocating for Ghamdi, said it had learned from sources inside the kingdom that the Court of Appeal had cancelled the sentence. 
"No new sentence has been issued against him yet," the organisation said.
In an interview with Fox News last September, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman acknowledged that Mohammed al-Ghamdi had been a victim of "bad laws", which he said should be changed.
"Shamefully, it's true," the crown prince said of Ghamdi's death sentence. "It's something I don't like."
However, rights advocates have pointed out that the counterterrorism law under which Ghamdi was tried was part of sweeping reforms the crown prince instigated when he rose to power.