Osama Khalid

Osama Khalid
Osama Khalid
	Khalid in March 2016
Born	19 January 1994 (age 31)
Occupations	Medical doctor; Wikipedian;
Criminal charges	Swaying public opinion
Criminal penalty	32 years
Criminal status	Incarcerated

Osama Khalid (Arabic: أسامة خالد, romanized: ʾUsāma Khālid, pronounced [ʔuˈsaːma ˈxaːlid]; born 19 January 1994^[1]) is a Saudi Arabian medical doctor and Wikipedia administrator who was sentenced to 32 years in prison in 2020.^[2] According to human rights activists, his arrest and prison sentence was because he contributed information about the persecution of political activists in Saudi Arabia.^[3] According to the joint statement by Washington-based whistleblower organization DAWN and Beirut based digital rights group SMEX, the arrest of Khalid is speculated to be part of a crackdown on Wikipedia administrators.^[4] However, the charges pressed on him by the Saudi regime are "swaying public opinion" and "violating public morals" by posting content "deemed to be critical about the persecution of political activists in the country".^[5]

Arrest

According to the sources from the Democracy for the Arab World Now and Social Media Exchange, Osama Khalid and fellow Arabic Wikipedia administrator Ziyad al-Sofiani were arrested on the same day in 2020.^[when?] The Specialized Criminal Court of Saudi Arabia, the counter-terrorism court of the country, initially sentenced him to five years in al-Ha'ir prison in Riyadh. In September 2022, the court increased his sentence to 32 years for the same charges.^[6]

Excessive prison sentences have been described as a tool of repression of the Saudi government by ALQST, citing both Khalid's sentence, and those of Salma al-Shehab, Nourah al-Qahtani and Sukaynah al-Aithan, amongst others.^[7]^[8]