Saudi Regime Executes Journalist Turki Al-Jasser After Years of Enforced Disappearance and Torture

Together for Justice strongly condemns the cold-blooded execution of Saudi journalist and blogger Turki Al-Jasser, carried out on Saturday, June 14, 2025, following a grossly unjust process marked by enforced disappearance, torture, and denial of basic legal rights.

Al-Jasser was arrested in March 2018 after Saudi authorities discovered he was behind the anonymous Twitter account “Kashkool,” which published critical content about government policies and called for democratic reforms. His identity was revealed with the direct involvement of Twitter’s regional office in Dubai, which shared confidential user data with Saudi authorities—an act that has since been widely denounced as corporate complicity in human rights violations.

Following his arrest, Al-Jasser was subjected to enforced disappearance for nearly two years, during which time reports circulated that he had died under torture. He was allowed to make a single call to his family in 2020, confirming he was alive but revealing no details about his condition or location. His family was denied access to legal representation, and no public trial was held. The Saudi Ministry of Interior claimed he was executed for “high treason” and “collaborating with foreign parties”—charges that appear to be politically motivated and unsubstantiated.

This execution is not only a premeditated murder of a journalist but also a flagrant assault on freedom of expression and the right to dissent. It is the result of systemic state violence empowered by international silence and normalization.

The Saudi regime would not have dared to commit such a crime had it not been for the ongoing complicity of global powers and institutions, including:

• FIFA, which granted Saudi Arabia the right to host the 2034 World Cup;
• EXPO and other global platforms rewarding the regime with legitimacy;
• Western leaders—Donald Trump, European heads of state—who ignored credible reports of rising executions and accepted Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s hollow promises of reform.

We hold the Saudi regime fully responsible for the murder of Turki Al-Jasser, and we also hold Twitter accountable for its direct role in endangering the lives of activists and dissidents.

We call on the United Nations, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, and all human rights bodies to open an immediate and transparent investigation into Al-Jasser’s arrest, treatment, and unlawful execution, and to take urgent steps to end the use of the death penalty as a tool of political repression in Saudi Arabia.