Project Description

Sultan bin Hans bin Shada

Sultan bin Hans bin Shada

controversial and harsh sentencing judge at the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh who issued a verdict against lawyers Abd al-Rahman al-Subaihi , Bandar al- Naqathan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih on charges including 'undermining public order' and 'insulting the judiciary via Twitter' for non-violent "Crimes" of expressing their opinions on corruption in the Saudi Judicial system. The sentences ranged from five to eight years in prison, a travel ban and a ban on using and appearing on social media. These accusations came after various social media activists created a hashtag on Twitter, criticizing the Ministry of Justice for monitoring the work of lawyers. The three lawyers were prosecuted after they re-posted the hashtag and tweets that the Ministry of Justice claimed represented an online smear campaign against it.

Abdulrahman Al-Subaihi is an active member of the Board of Directors and a former professor at the Saudi Higher Judicial Institute. According to the court ruling, he was convicted of defamation and slandering the king “and his claim that there are arbitrary detainees, undermining the judiciary and his prestige by interfering with the judgments issued and criticizing them,… and inciting justice men to adopt his approach“ based on ”the tweets emanating from his account on the social networking site (Twitter) ) ". He was sentenced to eight years in prison, the first five of which were pursuant to Article 6 of the Law on Combating Information Crime, followed by a 10-year travel ban, provided that it enters into force after his release and is prohibited from using or appearing in any media or social networking sites.

Bandar Al-Naqathan, a former law lecturer at Dar Al Uloom University, was sentenced to five years in prison, followed by a seven-year travel ban and a ban on appearing or writing in any media or social networking sites. He was convicted on the basis of charges related to his Twitter posts for describing the judiciary as incompetent and insulting the judiciary, as well as according to the verdict, "accusing the Ministry of Justice in a number of tweets of lying ... All of this would prejudice the public order."

Abdul Rahman Al-Rumaih is a former judge at the General Court in Riyadh, and he was also sentenced to five years in prison, a seven-year travel ban and a ban on using and appearing in the media or social networking sites. The court convicted him of insulting the judiciary and questioning its competence, including his criticism of one of the verdicts for being too harsh, which it considered "an interference in the independence of the judiciary and undermining its prestige" and "accusing the Ministry of Justice of failure, according to the tweets issued from his account on the social networking site Twitter."

The three human rights defenders can appeal the ruling.

There is great concern about the remarks made by the judge and included in the lawsuit list, after his judgments were imposed on human rights defenders. He directly threatened the freedom of expression of citizens in Saudi Arabia, saying, "I recommend in the context of this ruling that all those who followed the behavior of the defendants or close to it in shaking through the media or social media should follow their seriousness in order to

Personal information

Name: Sultan bin Hans bin Shada

Name in Arabic: سلطان بن حنس بن شدة

Date of Birth: Unknown

Gender: Male

Marital status: Unknown

Profession: Unknown

Place of residence: Unknown

Arrest and jail information

Date of arrest:1 September 2017

Manner of arrest: Unknown

Where held: Unknown

Trial information

Alleged crimes: Unknown

Victim's charges: Unknown

Court: Unknown

Verdict: Unknown

Date of verdict: Unknown

Updates on trial: Unknown

Previous arrests:

Human Rights Violations

Violations: Arbitrary arrest/ detention

Violation details: Unknown

References

Reference 1: None

Reference 2: https://al-herak.com/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B6%D8%A7%D8%A9_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%A3-%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AE-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B6%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3/

Reference 3: https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/11/04/high-cost-change/repression-under-saudi-crown-prince-tarnishes-reforms

Reference 4: None

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