Osama Khalid
Osama Khalid is a Saudi Arabian medical doctor and Wikipedia administrator who was sentenced to 32 years in prison in 2020.
According to human rights activists, his arrest and prison sentence was because he contributed information to Wikipedia about the persecution of political activists in Saudi Arabia.
According to the joint statement by Washington-based whistleblower organization Democracy for the [Arab World Now|DAWN] and Beirut based digital rights group SMEX, the arrest of Khalid is speculated to be part of a crackdown on Wikipedia administrators. However, the charges pressed on him by the Saudi government are "swaying public opinion" and "violating public morals" by posting content "deemed to be critical about the persecution of political activists in the country".
A joint statement signed by 33 organizations, including Freedom House and Amnesty International called on the Saudi authorities to release Khalid and all others unjustly imprisoned for their online expression.
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. 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.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.