UK-based human rights organisation SANAD recalls that these days marks the eighth anniversary of the arrest of Saudi professor and cartoonist Mohammed bin Ahmed bin Eid Al-Hazzaa Al-Ghamdi, who was arrested by the Saudi authorities in February 2018 for his work as a cartoonist for the Qatari newspaper Lusail, despite having stopped working there shortly before his arrest.
According to exclusive documents previously obtained by SANAD, the arrest of Al-Hazzaa (1978) followed prior surveillance by security forces and culminated in a violent raid while he was in a coffee shop in the city of Al-Baha. Subsequently, the authorities broke into his home, searched him and confiscated his devices and drawings, all without any legal justification.
Al-Hazzaa was accused of insulting the Saudi government and rulers, sympathising with Qatar, communicating with hostile entities and following opposition accounts on the social network "X". The prosecution relied on cartoons and tweets attributed to him.
During the trial, Al-Hazzaa denied the charges and claimed that most of the drawings cited in the case were unrelated to Saudi affairs and that some were not even his work. He also denied that he had claimed that Qatar "did not deserve the boycott", pointing to the absence of material evidence to support the allegations.
Although the court acknowledged, according to documents obtained by SANAD, that the evidence was insufficient to support some of the charges, al-Hazzaa was initially sentenced to six years' imprisonment and a six-year travel ban. Subsequently, the case was reopened and a new sentence of 23 years' imprisonment was handed down with no possibility of appeal.
Mohammed Al-Hazzaa is currently serving his sentence in Dhahban Prison and his health condition has deteriorated. He suffers from diabetes and chronic health problems, aggravated by medical negligence inside the prison.
The human rights organisation SANAD has urged the Saudi Arabian authorities to revoke the sentence against Mohammed Al-Hazzaa and to release him immediately and unconditionally and demand that, pending his release, the conditions of his detention must be improved, including the necessary urgent medical care.
Humour in trouble, a collection of cases
Cases of cartoonists who have had problems of some importance because of their cartoons or satirical illustrations. There are also some stories of other people who, without being cartoonists, have got into trouble for sharing them.
