International calls for Saudi Tweeter

Several human rights international organisations launched campaigns to urge the Saudi authorities to release the Saudi journalist, Hamza Kashgari, who faces the capital punishment on charges of insulting the Prophet Muhammad through comments on the social networking site “Twitter”. Hours after the Malaysian government extradited the young journalist to its Saudi counterpart, on Monday, the Human Rights Watch organisation, concerned with monitoring human rights affairs worldwide appealed to the KSA government demanding the release of Kashgari and the drop of all the charges against him, considering that his comments represent his personal beliefs. “Malaysia had no business deporting Kashgari, and Saudi has no business prosecuting him for tweets expressing his religious opinion, which it is his right to do freely,” said Sarah Lee Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “It is nearly certain he will not get a fair trial in Saudi Arabia, where religious scholars have concluded that he is guilty of apostasy and should be put to death.”