On June 14, 2025, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior announced the execution by hanging of Turki bin Abdulaziz al-Jasser, a prominent journalist and blogger who had been imprisoned for seven years on charges of treason, foreign collaboration, financing terrorism, and endangering national security and unity.
But the story of al-Jasser goes deeper, revealing the sophisticated digital surveillance and intimidation system run by key figures in the Saudi regime. Al-Jasser was believed to be the person behind the Twitter account Kashkool (@calouche_ar), which reported on abuses and corruption within the Saudi royal family. The account went silent in 2016 — the same year Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman became Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler.
According to multiple sources, including renowned human rights activist Yahya Assiri, al-Jasser’s identity was uncovered after Saudi “cyber-warriors” infiltrated Twitter’s Dubai headquarters. This operation was part of a broader effort led by Saud al-Qahtani — a top adviser to the crown prince and the architect of Saudi Arabia’s notorious online army, which harassed and threatened critics of the regime worldwide.
Qahtani, nicknamed the “Saudi Steve Bannon,” masterminded social media campaigns that targeted journalists and dissidents, including Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Qahtani had even warned on Twitter: “Does your alias protect you from the #blacklist? States have ways of finding out the account holder’s name. There are technical ways to trace IP addresses. A secret I won’t tell…”
In March 2018, Turki al-Jasser was forcibly disappeared by Saudi authorities. He was denied access to a lawyer or his family and was allegedly subjected to torture and inhumane treatment. Some reports claimed he died in detention from torture, but these reports remained unconfirmed until the Ministry of Interior announced his execution in 2025.
The execution has drawn outrage from international press freedom advocates.
“We are outraged by Saudi Arabia’s execution of prominent journalist Turki al-Jasser, who was detained for seven years because the regime believed he exposed corruption within the royal family,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, Chief Program Officer at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). “The international community’s failure to secure justice for Jamal Khashoggi emboldened Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to continue persecuting journalists. Today, another Saudi journalist has paid the price.”
Al-Jasser was well known for covering sensitive issues such as women’s rights, the Arab Spring, and high-level corruption. He contributed to the now-defunct Saudi newspaper Al-Taqrir and ran a personal blog between 2013 and 2015.
In 2024 alone, Saudi Arabia carried out 330 executions — nearly double the previous year’s figure and the highest in decades. More than 100 executions have already taken place in the first half of 2025.
UN experts and human rights groups have repeatedly urged the Saudi government to halt executions and ensure fair trials, warning that due process is routinely violated.
