Ashraf Fayadh

Ashraf Fayadh (Arabic: اشرف فياض‎‎, * 1980 in Saudi Arabia) is an artist and poet of Palestinian origin (Khan Yunis in Gaza Strip) who lives in Saudi Arabia. He has been active in the art scene in Saudi Arabia and has organized and curated exhibitions of Saudi art in Europe and Saudi Arabia. He was active in the British-Arabian arts organization, Edge of Arabia. As of November 2015 he has been sentenced to death for apostasy. In the early part of February 2016, the death sentence was overturned and the Saudi court imposed an eight-year prison term and 800 lashes instead. Fayadh must also repent through an announcement in official media.

Conviction for apostasy

After an argument with a fellow artist at a soccer game, Fayadh was detained by the country's religious police in 2013 in Abha, in southwest Saudi Arabia, released on bail, then rearrested and tried in early 2014. He was sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes. On appeal a Saudi appeals court returned the case to the lower court where a new judge was assigned to the case. On November 17, 2015 Fayadh was sentenced to death for apostasy. Used as evidence against him were several poems within his book Instructions Within, Twitter posts, and conversations he had in a coffee shop in Abha. Prior to this death sentence ruling, Fayadh was accused of having promoted atheism in this same book of poems Instructions Within, which was published in 2008.

Fayadh’s supporters believe he is being punished by hardliners for posting a video online showing a man being lashed in public by the religious police in Abha. Adam Coogle, a Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch, said Fayadh’s death sentence showed Saudi Arabia’s "complete intolerance of anyone who may not share government-mandated religious, political and social views".

Fayadh became Honory Member of German PEN which is also associated with famous PEN International as a member country, at December 2, 2015, combined by a new protest note. In November 2015 the Berlin International Literature Festival published an appeal to support Ashraf Fayadh with a Worldwide Reading on January 14, 2016.