A Saudi cartoonist has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for caricatures deemed “offensive” to the leaders of the Gulf monarchy, according to London-based rights group Sanad.
This is Mohammed al-Hazza, 48, who was found guilty of caricatures of him published in Qatar’s Lusail newspaper, as well as messages on social media that were considered “hostile” to Saudi Arabia and favorable to Qatar.
Father of five, al-Hazza was arrested in February 2018 during a “brutal attack”. Initially, he was sentenced by the Special Criminal Court of Saudi Arabia to six years in prison. But his case was reopened this year when he was about to be released, leading to a new conviction, Asrar al-Hazza, the cartoonist’s sister, told AFP. “Shortly before being released, my brother was sentenced to another 23 years in prison,” said Asrar al-Hazza, from the United States, where he lives.
Saudi authorities refused to comment on the information released by AFP.
The Sanad organization stated that most of al-Hazza’s sketches dealt with local issues. In fact, according to the organization, prosecutors did not provide evidence about the cartoons that were considered offensive to Saudi Arabia or the messages supporting Qatar.
“The case of Mohammed al-Hazza is an example of the suppression of freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia, which spares no one, including artists,” a Sanad spokesperson told AFP.