A Saudi journalist tweeted against the government - and was executed for 'high treason'

Source: The Guardian

A Saudi journalist tweeted against the government – and was executed for ‘high treason’

The death of Turki al-Jasser was the first high-profile killing of a journalist since the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi

Stephanie Kirchgaessner
Wed 18 Jun 2025 08.00 BST
Last modified on Thu 19 Jun 2025 00.19 BST

The tweet posted by Saudi journalist Turki al-Jasser in 2014 was chillingly prescient: “The Arab writer can be easily killed by their government under the pretext of ‘national security’,” he wrote.

On Saturday, the Saudi interior ministry announced that al-Jasser had been executed in Riyadh, for crimes including “high treason by communicating with and conspiring against the security of the Kingdom with individuals outside it”.

Al-Jasser is believed to have been in his 40s and the execution – which in most cases in Saudi is carried out by beheading with a sword – followed seven years of detention. Dissidents who spoke to the Guardian alleged he was subjected to torture during his imprisonment.

It was the first high-profile killing of a journalist by the Saudi state since the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist and prominent critic of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and murdered by Saudi agents. A UN report concluded that the murder was an extrajudicial killing by the state, and an intelligence assessment released by then president Joe Biden in 2021 concluded that Prince Mohammed approved the murder.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/18/saudi-arabia-turki-al-jasser-executed