Mohammad Alghamdi, a retired teacher in his mid 50s, was reportedly sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for critiquing national leadership on social media—to his measly 10 Twitter followers. Saudi Arabia has scaled up its attack on social media users in an attempt to discourage criticism of the government. Others have been sentenced to decades in prison for the same crime, but Alghamdi, who posted to Twitter and YouTube, appears to be the first person to get the death penalty. The father of seven living in Mecca frequently retweeted posts from popular critics of the Saudi regime, but tweeted his own disproval of its corruption, too, according to Human Rights Watch. He ran two tiny anonymous Twitter accounts that collectively amassed just 10 followers, making Alghamdi’s punishment all the more shocking. His older brother, Saeed Alghamdi, said he believed the harsh sentence was actually meant to target him. Saeed is a renowned Islamic scholar and well-known critic of the Saudi government, with far more reach than his brother.
