KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 13 — Saudi Arabian blogger Hamza Kashgari, deported back to Riyadh yesterday by Malaysia after allegations of insulting Prophet Mohammad on micro-blogging site Twitter, was taken into custody on arrival in Riyadh last night.
Saudi Arabia’s English daily Arab News cited informed sources as saying the 23-year-old columnist, who fled to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, will face charges of blasphemy.
Blasphemy is a crime punishable by execution under Saudi Arabia’s strict interpretation of Islamic syariah law. It is not a capital crime in Malaysia.
“Kashghari escaped the Kingdom after realising that the deletion of his tweets and a subsequent tweet apologising for the statements were not enough to stop levelling of charges against him,” the newspaper wrote.
It also reported that Saudi Arabian ruler King Abdullah has issued orders to arrest Kashghari and bring him to justice.
Malaysia deported Kashgari despite fears voiced by human rights groups that he could face execution in his home country over Twitter comments he made that were deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammad.
He sparked outrage in the oil-rich kingdom with comments posted on the Prophet’s birthday a week ago that led some Islamic clerics to call for him to face the death penalty.
Kashgari fled the country, but was arrested by police in majority-Muslim Malaysia on Thursday as he transited through Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Malaysian police have said that any charges brought against Kashgari by Saudi Arabia are “an internal Saudi matter.”
Malaysia has a close affinity with many Middle Eastern nations through their shared religion. But it is also a US ally and a leading global voice for moderate Islam, meaning that the decision to extradite Kashgari is certain to be controversial.
Kashgari’s lawyer in Malaysia, Mohammad Noor, had told Reuters yesterday he had obtained a court order to prevent the deportation, but had not been allowed to see his client.
The blogger had allegedly posted the offending comments on his Twitter feed last weekend, which coincided with Prophet Muhammad’s birthday.
It sparked thousands of outraged comments and calls for his execution on Twitter and other social networking sites, Reuters reported.
The exact nature of his comments cannot be verified as he later deleted them, but media reported that one of them reflected his contradictory views of the Prophet.
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