Indian worker jailed for 600 days for insulting Saudi crown prince

NEW DELHI, Aug. 21 (YPA) – An Indian worker has spent more than 600 days in the prisons of the Saudi regime for allegedly insulting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“The Air conditioning technician, Harish Banjira, 34, from Udupi district in Karnataka state, returned to his home on Wednesday (August 19) after spending 604 days in the prisons of the Saudi regime,” the “Indian Express” newspaper said Friday.

The newspaper pointed out that those days that the worker Banjira spent were on charges of defaming the reputation of the Crown Prince and the community on social media.

It noted that Banjira had faced life imprisonment or the death penalty, before an investigation by Udupi police found that impersonators were behind the publication that landed him in prison.

Benjira, a resident of Al-Bajadi village, was arrested on December 22, 2019 in the Saudi city of Dammam, where he was working. This was three days after he published a Facebook post supporting the Indian government’s Citizenship (Amendment) Act and planning a national register of citizens, which sparked the ire of his employer.

YPA