A Saudi artist has been sentenced to more than two decades in prison over political cartoons that allegedly insulted the Gulf kingdom's leadership, his sister and a rights group said this week. The case against Mohammed al-Hazza, 48, adds to concerns about freedom of expression under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as Saudi Arabia — the world's largest crude oil exporter — seeks to open up to tourists and investors after years of isolation.

The father of five was arrested in February 2018 in Saudi Arabia during "a violent raid" in which security forces entered his home and ransacked his studio, the London-based Sanad Human Rights Organization said in a statement.

A court document seen by AFP says the charges against him concern "offensive cartoons" he produced for the Qatari newspaper Lusail as well as social media posts that were allegedly "hostile" to Saudi Arabia and supportive of Qatar.

Hazza's arrest came less than a year after Saudi Arabia and several allies cut ties with Qatar, claiming it supported extremists and was too close to Iran — allegations that Doha denied. The countries mended ties in January 2021.

Saudi Arabia's secretive Specialized Criminal Court, set up in 2008 to deal with terrorism-related cases, initially sentenced Hazza to six years in prison. But this year, as Hazza was preparing to be released, the case was re-opened and he was sentenced to 23 years, his sister Asrar al-Hazza told AFP by phone from the United States.

"He was almost there... He almost left the prison. But then out of nowhere it was opened again and it was 23 years," she said.

Saudi authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the case on Wednesday. Sanad said in its statement that Hazza worked for Lusail mostly before the 2017 boycott "and only briefly afterward" and that most of his cartoons concerned domestic Qatari issues.

The group said prosecutors failed to provide evidence of cartoons that were offensive to Saudi Arabia or social media posts that backed Qatar during the boycott.

Under Crown Prince bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has been criticized for what activists describe as a fierce crackdown on even vaguely critical online speech and on any form of dissent.

Pushed by CBS News' Norah O'Donnell over the jailing of a prominent women's rights activist in a 2019 interview for 60 Minutes, bin Salman said, "there are laws in Saudi Arabia that must be respected, whether or not we agree with them, whether I personally agree with them or not."

Over the past two years the Saudi judiciary has "convicted and handed down lengthy prison terms on dozens of individuals for their expression on social media," human rights groups Amnesty International and ALQST said in April.

Saudi officials say the accused cartoonist committed terrorism-related offenses.

"The case of Mohammed al-Hazza is one example of the suppression of freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia, which has not spared anyone, including artists," Sanad operations manager Samer Alshumrani told AFP. "This is supported by the politicized, non-independent judiciary in Saudi Arabia."

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