Court sentences man to 2,000 lashes for atheist views on Twitter

Saudi Arabia’s religious police found more than 600 tweets from the 28-year-old’s Twitter account which denied the existence of God and ridiculed verses in the Quran.

According to Dailymail, some of the messages also accused all prophets of lying an said their teaching fueled hostilities.

The man did not deny being an atheist when he appeared in a court in Riyadh. He said the views reflects his own beliefs and felt he had the right to express them.

The court sentenced him to 2,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for the tweets. He was also fined 20,000 riyals (£3,834).

Saudi Arabia introduced new laws which defined atheists as terrorists two years ago.

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