A Saudi court has sentenced a former imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca to 10 years in prison.
1. A Saudi court has sentenced a former imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca to 10 years in prison. Sheikh Saleh al Talib was detained in 2018, following his sermon criticising a government body over concerts and events that violate the kingdom’s religious and cultural norms.
2. Democracy for the Arab World Now says the court sentenced Talib to jail after overturning his previous acquittal. The group says this is part of a growing trend where clerics and imams face imprisonment for opposing reforms pursued by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The sentencing of Sheikh Talib is not unprecedented as a number of Saudi clerics, with ultra-conservative views , and critical of Prince Salman’s transition blueprint have been put behind bars, according to the BBC.
Sheikh Talib’s arrest has exposed deep fault lines in the Kingdom.
For instance, Turki-al-Shaloub, a self-styled anti-corruption scribe with over a million followers on Twitter described the verdict as “one of the stories of cruelty, corruption and injustice of the Salman regime”.
Social media backlash to the decision has been intense.
2. Democracy for the Arab World Now says the court sentenced Talib to jail after overturning his previous acquittal. The group says this is part of a growing trend where clerics and imams face imprisonment for opposing reforms pursued by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The sentencing of Sheikh Talib is not unprecedented as a number of Saudi clerics, with ultra-conservative views , and critical of Prince Salman’s transition blueprint have been put behind bars, according to the BBC.
Sheikh Talib’s arrest has exposed deep fault lines in the Kingdom.
For instance, Turki-al-Shaloub, a self-styled anti-corruption scribe with over a million followers on Twitter described the verdict as “one of the stories of cruelty, corruption and injustice of the Salman regime”.
Social media backlash to the decision has been intense.
