Hamza Kashgari

Hamza Kashgari Mohamad Najeeb (often Hamza Kashgari, Arabic: حمزة كاشغري; born 1989) is a Saudi poet and a former columnist for the Saudi daily newspaper Al-Bilad. In 2011, he was on a Mabahith watchlist of pro-democracy activists.

Kashgari became the subject of a controversy after he was accused of insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad in three short messages published through the Twitter social networking service. King Abdullah ordered that Kashgari be arrested "for crossing red lines and denigrating religious beliefs in God and His Prophet". Kashgari left Saudi Arabia, trying to seek political asylum in New Zealand. On February 12, 2012, he was extradited from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, back to Saudi Arabia while a Malaysian High Court injunction against his extradition was issued. Whether Kashgari was deported before or after the issuing of the injunction is disputed between Malaysian authorities and the Malaysian NGO Lawyers for Liberty (LFL). Saudi authorities jailed Kashgari for nearly two years without trial for his Twitter messages.