Saudi Arabian court sentences a man to 10 years in jail, £4k fine and 2,000 lashes for tweeting that he was an atheist

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

In Saudi Arabia there's a law that places atheists and atheistic beliefs as 'terrorism', hence a man who tweeted that he was an atheist has been fined £4,000 and sentenced to 10 years in jail with 2000 lashes of the cane by a high court in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia's Islamic police found over 600 tweets by the 28 year old man denying the existence of God, ridiculing Koranic verses, accusing all prophets of lies and saying their teaching fueled hostilities, and after the Islamic court gave him all this punishments the man has refused to 'repent' saying he only aired his beliefs and he still stands by them.

In 2014 the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia issued royal decrees aimed at clamping down on all forms of political dissent and protests that could “harm public order”.

One of the articles of the decrees defined terrorism as “calling for atheist thought in any form, or calling into question the fundamentals of the Islamic religion on which this country is based”.

Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director of Human Rights Watch, said  “Saudi authorities have never tolerated criticism of their policies, but these recent laws and regulations turn almost any critical expression or independent association into crimes of terrorism.”

Source: The Sun UK