Saudi Arabia has sentenced to death a government critic who denounced alleged corruption and human rights abuses on social media, his brother and others familiar with the case told AFP on Monday.
The judgement was handed down against Mohammed al-Ghamdi in July by the Specialized Criminal Court, a secretive institution established in 2008 to try terrorism cases that has a history of unfair trials resulting in death sentences.
The charges against al-Ghamdi include conspiracy against the Saudi leadership, undermining state institutions and supporting terrorist ideology, sources briefed on the details of the case told AFP.
Its was short sighted, we could have been cutting edge leaders in the energy of the future, but we let oil refiners convince us that it was in our best interest to let China and others take that mantle. Now we lag behind. We could have used renewable technology and sanctions against hydrocarbon energy to shape the emerging markets of the world but noooooo let all that soft power slip away so oil barons can get more money. Oil was extremely expensive for all of us we just haven’t seen the true bill yet.