"According to an August 29 news release by Human Rights Watch, a civil rights non-governmental organization based in New York City, 54-year-old retired Saudi teacher Muhammad al-Ghamdi was sentenced to death this year by a Saudi court on a series of charges related to his online political activism. [...] Al-Ghamdi's trial judgment claims he used his accounts on the Musk-owned platform X, formerly Twitter, as well as the Google-owned YouTube to commit his alleged crimes. [...] Musk's silence is particularly jarring given his self-professed commitment to free speech, which he often expresses in critiques of the U.S. government and institutions as complicit in an Orwellian plot to restrict free speech. [...] Some online have alleged his reluctance to wade into al-Ghamdi's case could stem from his close and long-standing financial connections to the Saudi royal family."