Watan-Media and human rights circles in Egypt revealed a court ruling from a Saudi court sentencing an Egyptian worker named “Ahmed Mohamed Omar” to 19 years in prison for a tweet attacking the head of the Saudi Entertainment Authority, Turki Al-Sheikh. The tweet dates back to 2019.
The news was shared by Egyptian activist and journalist Omar Al-Fattahiri through his verified account on the (X) platform. He attached a picture of the Egyptian Ahmed Omar with his tweet, stating: “An Egyptian worker in Saudi Arabia (Ahmed Mohamed Omar) sentenced to 19 years in prison due to a tweet about Turki Al-Sheikh.”
Platforms following up on the case of the Egyptian worker who was detained in the Kingdom after 9 months of his arrival for work there (Nokash) reported that the family of “Ahmed Mohamed Omar,” who was sentenced to 19 years in prison, appealed to Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and a number of ministers seeking his release.
The family of “Ahmed Mohamed” also sent distress messages via fax to the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Immigration, Labor, and other state officials.
His tweet about Al-Sheikh was the charge against him. A Saudi court sentenced Ahmed Mohamed Omar to 19 years in prison due to a post on (X) about a dispute between Al-Ahly Club fans and Turki Al-Sheikh dating back to 2019, according to the worker’s mother, Afaf Abdullah.
Mrs. Afaf stated in press statements that her son traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2021 to work in “Nokash,” and after 9 months of his arrival, his roommates informed the family that he was arrested by the Saudi police without knowing where he was taken.
بسبب تغريدة عن تركي آل الشيخ.. الحكم بحبس عامل مصري بالسعودية ( أحمد محمد عمر ) 19 عاما pic.twitter.com/SCa21bNuXF
— omar elfatairy (@OElfatairy) April 9, 2024
The family of Ahmed Mohamed Omar, the Egyptian worker detained by the Saudi security, remained more than a year and a half without any information about him, and his friends there tried to find out about him without any result.
His charge was a tweet about Al-Sheikh
Until he contacted them and informed them that he was in Al-Qassim prison, and they allowed him to contact his family. When his mother Afaf asked him about the reason for his arrest, he said it was due to a post on (X) since 2019 before traveling to the Kingdom, talking about the dispute between Al-Ahly Club and Turki Al-Sheikh, and his eagerness because of his love for the club in response to Saudis who commented on the post he wrote.
After the last call with him, his family did not know anything about him, until his brother contacted a lawyer in Saudi Arabia and informed him that a verdict had been issued against his brother sentencing him to 19 years in prison.
This is not the first time Egyptians have been arrested in Saudi Arabia. In October 2021, security forces there arrested pharmacist Sherif Madkur Mahmoud Hassanein.
“Hassanein” was working at a pharmacy in southern Jeddah, and he was arrested because of a post on Facebook, and he was accused of spreading false news that harmed drug pharmacies in Saudi Arabia.
A young Egyptian was also recently arrested in the Haram after raising solidarity slogans with Gaza, and his fate is still unknown.
The regime of Mohammed bin Salman tightens its security and oppressive grip in the Kingdom unprecedentedly in its history, and mere criticism or insinuation, not opposition, leads the person to the depths of prisons, which are now filled to capacity with scholars, thinkers, activists, and religious men.