Former Imam of the Kaaba sentenced to ten years in prison

Imam E Kaaba Sheikh Saleh Talib Sentenced 10 Years Prison

On August 22, a court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced the former imam and preacher of the Kaaba, Sheikh Saleh Talib, to ten years in prison.

Apart from Saudi Arabia, the rest of the media in the Arab world have published the news that the former Imam of the Kaaba has been sentenced to ten years.

According to various news websites of the Arab world, on August 22, the Saudi Court of Appeal issued a 10-year prison sentence against former imam and preacher Sheikh Saleh al-Talib.

Among the media outlets that reported on the former imam of the Kaaba was Qatar-linked Arabic 21, which reported that the court had reversed a lower court's acquittal of the charges.

According to the news correspondent, the Police of Saudi Arabia arrested Imam Saleh Talib in August, 2018 without clearing up the cause for his arrest.

According to Arabic 21, Talib has served as a judge in various Saudi courts, including the Emergency Court in the capital Riyadh and the High Court in Makkah, where he worked before his arrest.

Since his arrest, human rights groups and various anti-Saudi media have linked his sentence to a sermon he gave about the 'importance of rejecting evil'.

At the time, Saudi activist Yahya Esri told Qatar-funded Al Jazeera Net that his country's authorities were targeting those who might question the government and popular figures in the future.

According to the source report, which has criticized Saudi policies since Saudi Arabia's tensions with Qatar in 2017, the former imam of the Kaaba delivered a sermon against the "oppressive and tyrannical" rulers in a sermon before his arrest. However, he avoided naming the Saudi royal family.

He highlighted the social media criticism of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's social transformation in the kingdom, with one describing it as shocking.

Over the past few years, a number of Islamic clerics have been arrested in the country for holding an ultra-conservative religious outlook that is at odds with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's 'liberalisation' campaign and his 'Vision 2030' of economic and social reforms.

Like his arrest, the verdict against Talib has sparked a social media storm about Saudi critics of the crown prince and his liberal policies.

Turki al-Shalhoub, a self-proclaimed anti-corruption journalist with over a million followers on Twitter, criticized the decision, saying that Saudi courts had criticized Al-Taleb for his sermons against "evil deeds and their perpetrators". He has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In another tweet, Shalhoub described the decision as "one of the stories of cruelty, corruption and injustice of the Bin Salman regime". This tweet has gained the support of most preachers.

Meanwhile, prisoners of conscience on the Twitter account reporting on political prisoners in Saudi Arabia have confirmed the news of this decision.