We, the undersigned organisations, express deep concern over the continued arbitrary detention of the Saudi Wikipedian Osama Khalid, whose 14-year prison sentence was recently upheld. We call for his immediate release, along with all others arbitrarily detained in the kingdom for peacefully exercising their fundamental freedoms.
Khalid, a 32-year-old paediatrician, blogger, and Wikipedia administrator, is serving a 14-year prison sentence in al-Ha’ir prison for his online activism. His sentence was upheld in February 2026, highlighting once again the Saudi authorities’ determination to silence peaceful dissent.
Khalid was arrested in July 2020, amid a wave of arbitrary arrests carried out by the Saudi authorities during the Covid-19 lockdown. Initially sentenced by Saudi Arabia's Specialised Criminal Court to a five-year jail term, this was increased on appeal to 32 years, before being reduced in 2023 to 25 years and again in September 2025, to 14 years. The huge discrepancy between sentences handed down at different stages in the case underscores the arbitrary manner in which sentencing is carried out in the Saudi judicial system.
Khalid is not due to be released until 2034, by which time he will be 40 years old. His Wikipedia colleague Ziyad al-Sufyani, arrested alongside Khalid in 2020, was sentenced to an eight-year jail term, but was released in March 2025 during an unexplained wave of prisoner releases.
In 2024, on Khalid’s 30th birthday, many NGOs came together to call for his immediate release and to put an end to the suppression of online activism and peaceful dissent in Saudi Arabia.
A self-described “enthusiast about digital liberties and human rights,” Khalid is a well-known public-facing activist for internet freedom in Saudi Arabia. Alongside his studies and professional work, Khalid was also an active blogger, translator, and editor. As early as 2006, he contributed to Wikipedia posts in Arabic and later became a prolific publisher and administrator. In this role, he authored and translated articles on a wide range of subjects. In addition, he was active on Twitter and maintained his own blog, where he advocated against censorship and in support of human rights and freedoms, especially online. Both the account and the website were later shut down.
Khalid’s crimes, in the eyes of the state, were simply sharing information online that conflicted with official narratives. As a Wikipedia editor, he had contributed to pages on critical human rights issues such as the treatment of women’s rights activists Loujain al-Hathloul (herself imprisoned in al-Ha’ir from 2018 to 2021). Khalid had also authored an article criticising government plans for the surveillance of encrypted digital communication platforms in 2013.
Khalid’s case is not isolated, and he is among many prisoners of conscience who remain in arbitrary detention.
Therefore, we, the undersigned organisations, call on the Saudi Arabian authorities to:
- Immediately and unconditionally release Osama Khalid and all individuals arbitrarily detained in Saudi Arabia;
- Conduct an independent and transparent investigation into the charges against him, conducted in accordance with international human rights standards;
- End the suppression of online activism and peaceful dissent in Saudi Arabia.
Signatories:
- Access Now
- ALQST for Human Rights
- Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR), University of York
- Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
- Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
- European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR)
- Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GC4HR)
- MENA Rights Group
