Saudi Arabia: Dismissal and "Final Exit Visa" for Arab Employee Who Insulted the Kingdom

The Saudi newspaper "Sabq" reported, citing a source, that the Saudi sports network "SSC" terminated its contract with an employee of Lebanese nationality after "offensive remarks made by this person against the nation" were circulated. The source from "SSC" revealed to "Sabq" that the contract was terminated with the Lebanese national, who did not work directly with the channel but with a company contracted by the channel on a temporary basis, following the social media posts of insults against the homeland made through the individual's personal accounts. The same source confirmed that the contracting company immediately issued a decision to terminate his services, emphasizing that "the channel management is keen on the country's reputation and will not accept the presence of any person working directly with the channel or any contracted companies who makes such offensives at all." According to "Russia Today," Abdullah Al-Barqawi, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of "Sabq," stated that "the Lebanese expatriate who insulted the Kingdom in his tweets was expelled from the company contracted with SSC channels." He added that "the action was swift, and the employee responsible for the offensive tweets was removed from work and expelled (from Saudi Arabia) with a final exit visa." "Sabq" did not provide further details about the incident and did not mention the name of the dismissed individual.