A 28-year-old man named Vishnu Dev Radhakrishnan has been sentenced 10 year jail tern in Saudi Arabia for his tweets criticising Prophet Mohammed. Vishnu, accused of “cyber crime pertaining to blasphemy and spreading messages against the Kingdom through social media”, has reportedly been languishing in jail since June 2018.
Vishnu’s father Radhakrishnan Nair told a leading publication that Vishnu, after row of social media exchanges with a UK based girl, got detained and jailed for five years last year however, his term was extended to ten year on January 24.
“He had befriended a Muslim woman in the UK on Twitter. The woman spoke against Hindu gods in one of her conversations on Twitter. In reply, Vishnu tweeted something against the Prophet. He was arrested on June 7, 2018. On September 13, he was given a five-year jail term and a penalty of 1.5 lakh Saudi Riyal. His sentence was increased to 10 years on January 24,” Vishnu’s father was quoted.
Retired from Indian Air Force after 21 years of service, Nair sought help from Indian Government and several politicians to get his son released from jail, but to no avail.
“I have sought the help of union government and union minister of external affairs Sushma Swaraj to release my son from jail. But I have not received any positive reply from them,’’ said Nair.
Vishnu was working as an engineer at Nasser S Al-Hajri Corporation, a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, before his arrest.
