File photo of members of Saudi security forces enacting an encounter during a military parade on 17 September, 2015 (Reuters)
On Wednesday, Saudi authorities said that they had arrested 22 individuals, including a Qatari national, for using social media to spread dissent.
Another 24 were detained in the northern Hail region for stirring tribal divisions, the state news agency SPA reported.
Neither one of the reports delved into the details of the offenses. The announcements came days after a request from King Salman lifting a prohibition on ladies driving in the conservative Islamic kingdom.
Saudi Arabia, close by the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, has likewise cut discretionary and transport ties with Qatar blaming it for supporting activists and Iran, charges Doha denies.
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Refering to a source in the recently made Presidency of State Security, the counter-psychological counter-terrorism and domestic intelligence body, SPA said the 22 had been detained after authorities spotted recordings via social media "inciting against public order".
The online postings stirred up sentiments towards issues that are still under consideration, and affected individuals to perpetrate crimes, SPA said.
Independently, SPA carried a statement from the interior ministry saying that amid unspecified examinations in Hail, individuals connected to the case were advancing untruths and misrepresentations about their circumstances with a specific end goal to incite dissidence and tribal strains.
Not long after the two reports, Saudi Arabia's top clerical body, the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars, issued an announcement saying: "Anyone who tried to harm the kingdom security and the unity of its people has committed a dangerous crime".
Source: the Web
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