human rights defender

Osama Khalid

Actions and Campaigns

HRD's year of birth

1994

HRD's Gender

Man

Type of HRD

  • Journalist/Blogger

HRD's thematic area of engagement

  • Digital rights

Current Status

In prison (sentenced)

HRD's bio and work

Osama Khalid is a Saudi pediatrician, blogger, and prominent Wikipedian. Active in the field of information technology since 2006, he founded the Computer Club in 2013. He also managed an online medical cloud platform, where medical students collaborated to create a comprehensive digital library of resources. A dedicated Wikipedian, he volunteered countless hours to enrich the free encyclopedia in Arabic, championing values of transparency and open access to information. He had edited articles about woman human rights defender Loujain Al-Hathloul. He is one of Saudi Arabia’s most public-facing and well-known internet freedom advocates. His own Wikipedia page states that his work as part of Wikipedia has had a huge impact on his life, and that defending and promoting internet freedom was one of his priorities.

Detained since

Jul 1, 2020

Charge(s)

  • Creating disturbances

Sentence

32 YEARS

Latitude: 24.44906

Longitude: 46.81298

Geolocation of detention

Country or area of detention

Region of detention

  • Asia: Western Asia

Location of detention - City/Town

Riyadh

Location of detention - Facility

Al-Ha’ir Prison

Allegations / reports of ill-treatment

Little is known about Osama Khalid's case, which is shrouded in secrecy. What is known is that in the summer of 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown, Osama Khalid and his fellow doctor and Wikipedian Ziyad Al-Sufyani were swept up in a wave of arbitrary arrests. It has been reported that observers were also denied access to court hearings.

Recent case update / evolution

Osama Khalid was arrested in July 2020 (specific date unknown) and initially sentenced to five years in prison by the Specialized Criminal Court on charges related to provoking public opinion. However, his sentence was increased to 32 years on appeal. The world remained unaware of his plight until two years later, and to this day, the specific charges against him remain undisclosed.

On 11 March 2025, ALQST for Human Rights reported that his colleague Ziad Al-Sufyani had been freed but Osama Khalid remains in prison.

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