Saudi Professor Faces Charges After Fighting for Free Speech
What are the limits of open dissent in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? They are often unclear and seemingly arbitrary, writes Thomas W. Lippman, but there is no doubt that Dr. Mohammad al-Qahtani went well beyond them. He had predicted it, and in the context of Saudi Arabia, he was asking for it.
What are the limits of free speech and open dissent in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? They are often unclear and seemingly arbitrary, but there is no doubt that Dr. Mohammad al-Qahtani, a professor and activist, went well beyond them, and he knew it. He was hardly surprised when Saudi prosecutors, finally fed up with his vociferous denunciations of the regime, hit him with a long list of criminal charges. He had predicted it, and in the context of Saudi Arabia, he was asking for it.
“Make no mistake,” he said shortly before a recent procedural hearing on his case. “We are all going to prison.” By “we” he meant himself and two colleagues in the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, perhaps the most outspoken and daring agitators for human rights and personal freedom in the kingdom.
