Palestinian poet sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for Apostasy

On November 17, 2015, Palestinian artist and
poet Ashraf Fayadh was sentenced to death for
apostasy for alleged blasphemous statements he
made during a discussion group and in his poetry
book. The judge ruled that Fayadh’s repentance
was not enough to avoid the death sentence.
According to Fahmy Foundation, Palestinian artist
and poet Ashraf Fayadh was detained at a café in
Abha in southern Saudi Arabia in August 2013.
Members of Saudi Arabia’s Committee on the
Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, also
known as the religious morality police, arrested
him after a man reported that Fayadh made
insulting public comments about God, the Prophet
Mohamed, and Saudi Arabia. The same man
added that Fayadh passed around a poetry book
he wrote that allegedly promoted atheism. He
was released after one day.
Fayadh was arrested again on January 1, 2014,
and charged with a number of apostasy-related
offenses, including denouncing Allah himself,” and
the Prophet Mohammed, spreading atheism and
promoting it to the youth, refuting the Koran and
the Day of Resurrection, and indulging in illicit
relationships with women and saving their photos
on his phone. Fayadh denied all the charges and
stated that he met the women in an art gallery.
According to Human Rights Watch, on May 26,
2014, the General Court of Abha convicted
Fayadh and sentenced him to four years in prison
and 800 lashes. The court rejected the
prosecutor’s request for a death sentence for
blasphemy based on court testimony indicating
“hostility” between Fayadh and the man who
reported him, and it cited Fayadh’s statement of
repentance made in court.
Excerpts from his poetry book, Instructions Witihin ,
published in 2008 and banned in Saudi Arabia,
were used against him in court to support the
charges. The prosecutor appealed the ruling and
the case was eventually sent back to the lower
court.
Fayadh is Saudi-born and remains officially
stateless. He is a member of the British-Saudi art
collective Edge of Arabia and has been credited
with curating art shows in Jeddah and the Venice
Biennale to promote the work of Saudi
contemporary artists. In 2013 he curated “Mostly
Visible,”an exhibition in Jeddah that brought
together the work of 30 artists.
"They accused me of atheism and spreading some
destructive thoughts in society," said Fayadh to
The Guardian newspaper.
He added that his book, Instructions Within, was
"just about me being [a] Palestinian refugee,
about cultural and philosophical issues. But the
religious extremists explained it as destructive
ideas against God."
Fayadh stated that he was not able to appoint a
lawyer because his ID was confiscated during his
initial arrest in 2014. He also confirmed that the
judge never spoke to him in court before
announcing the verdict.