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He was detained by Saudi authorities for allegedly managing a Twitter account that sought to reveal human rights abuses by the royal family.
Turki Bin Abdul Aziz Jasser, a journalist from Saudi Arabia reportedly died after going through torture while in detention, as the kingdom is going through a tumultuous period in the wake of Jamal Khashoggi's murder.
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The New Khaleej news outlet reported on Nov. 3 that Jasser, who was detained since March, died due to severe torture in prison.
According to reports he was forcibly disappeared by Saudi authorities after some spies allegedly infiltrated Twitter’s Dubai headquarters and accused Jasser of administering the Kashkol Twitter account, which sought to reveal the royal family’s violations of human rights.
Kashkol (@coluche_ar) had been inactive since March, around the same time Jasser was reportedly disappeared.
Prisoners of Conscience, a human rights group seeking to promote human rights in Saudi Arabia tweeted about his death and his imprisonment in March.
�� Quoting @thenewkhaleej: The detained Saudi writer Turki al-Jasser is reported DEAD under severe torture in prison a few days after his arbitrary detention in March. pic.twitter.com/qEkZzlilfZ
— Prisoners of Conscie (@m3takl_en) November 3, 2018
The spies who infiltrated Twitter’s headquarters in Dubai are considered to be a part of Saudi Arabia’s Cyber Army established by Saud Qahtani, a former aide of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Qahtani was fired after being blamed for Khashoggi’s murder.
In one of his columns for Washington Post, Khashoggi wrote that Qahtani maintained a “blacklist” of critical writers to intimidate them.
Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist who went into self-imposed exile to the United States after the crown prince started cracking down on dissent. The Washington Post columnist went into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 to get papers for his marriage and was never seen again.
Turkey accused Saudi Arabia of killing him, which the latter accepted after weeks of denial. However, Saudi officials argue that Mohammed bin Salman was not aware of the murder because it was a rogue operation.
Since the Khashoggi murder, Saudi Arabia has been in diplomatic turmoil as more countries have denounced its human rights violations and war crimes in Yemen.
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