Awad bin Mohammed Al-Qarni (born 1957) is a prominent reformist law professor in Saudi Arabia who was arrested and condemned to death for offenses including using a Twitter account and WhatsApp to share messages deemed "hostile" to the kingdom.
[5] On 15 January 2023, The Guardian reported that Al-Qarni faced the death penalty from the Saudi government for offenses including owning a Twitter account and using WhatsApp to share messages deemed "hostile" to the kingdom.
The details of the news were revealed by his son Nasser al-Qarni in a video, who left Saudi Arabia last year and is living in the UK.
[6][7][8] The United States government has accused Saudi Arabia of using big technology companies and social media platforms such as Twitter and WhatsApp to suppress its critics.
[9][10][11] Jeed Basyouni, the head of Middle East and North African advocacy at Reprieve, said that the kingdom has sought to present an international image of investment in technology, modern infrastructure, sports, and entertainment through posting about the kingdom's investment on Facebook and Twitter, while that scholars and academics, including Al-Qarni, are facing the death penalty by the government of Bin Salman for tweeting and expressing their opinions.