A Decade in Jail Wasn’t Enough? Saudi Prosecutors Reportedly Seek Death for Preacher al-Tarifi

More than ten years of detention apparently did not satisfy Saudi prosecutors. According to the Saudi human rights organization ALQST, they have requested the death penalty for Abdul Aziz al-Tarifi, a well-known preacher and hadith scholar who has spent over a decade in custody.

ALQST voiced its alarm over the case on Wednesday. It reported that the 50-year-old cleric is still locked up in al-Ha’ir Prison in Riyadh, where he is being held in solitary confinement, presumably so he doesn’t have to put up with other people.

The group was careful to note the limits of what it knows. It said it does not have enough information on the most recent court proceedings and could not confirm whether prosecutors are still pushing for his execution.

The Saudi authorities, never ones to rush into transparency, have neither confirmed nor denied ALQST’s account of the prosecution’s demand.

A tweet too far

Al-Tarifi was taken into custody in April 2016. ALQST says his arrest came after he posted on social media criticizing Al-Arabiya, the Saudi-owned television network, along with some government policies. His detention turned out to be merely an opening act: a wider crackdown followed, sweeping up many of the kingdom’s religious figures.

The rights group presented his case as part of broader concerns about the use of capital punishment in Saudi Arabia and the prosecution of clerics and critics of the government.

A familiar pattern

ALQST pointed to the case of Saudi journalist Turki al-Jasser, whose execution the authorities announced after he had spent years in detention. Officials said al-Jasser had been found guilty of offenses including treason, espionage and financing terrorism. Rights organizations, for their part, denounced the secrecy that shrouded the case and tied his prosecution to his journalistic work and online activity.

The organization also drew attention to the ongoing cases of two prominent religious figures, Salman al-Awda and Hassan Farhan al-Maliki, saying prosecutors have requested death sentences for both.

And the list goes on. According to ALQST, prosecutors have in the past also demanded capital punishment for the preachers Awad al-Qarni and Ali al-Omari.