Assad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi

Extra Bio Info:

Assad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi has been sentenced on religious-based charges related to social media activity criticizing the Saudi government.

In November 2022, Saudi security forces arbitrarily detained al-Ghamdi from his home in the Al-Hamdaniya neighborhood of Jeddah. During the arrest, authorities reportedly confiscated electronic devices, computers, and books for al-Ghamdi’s past tweets expressing condolences of a Saudi human rights activist and criticizing authorities’ sidelining of the Saudi religious establishment as part of Saudi Vision 2030.

In June 2024, the Special Criminalized Court sentenced al-Ghamdi to 20 years in prison and placed a travel ban on him on several charges under the Counterterrorism Law for his criticism of the Saudi government. These charges include insulting religion and the King’s justice (Art. 30), endorsing a terrorist ideology (Art. 34), attempting to destabilize the system, and endangering national unity.

Asaad is the brother of Dr. Saeed Nasser al-Ghamdi, a Saudi religious scholar and opposition figure residing in London, and the brother of Mohammed al-Ghamdi, who is imprisoned and has been sentenced to death for expressing support for religious prisoners of conscience. In the course of his detention over the last year and a half, Assad was reportedly subject to torture and medical neglect in multiple detention centers, including Dhahban and Al-Hayer prisons.

Related Cases: Mohammed al-Ghamdi