Brinji was arrested on May 12, 2014. He was held in solitary confinement and not permitted to speak to anyone. He was not allowed access to a lawyer. On March 24, 2016, he was convicted by Saudi Arabia’s Specialized Criminal Court (SCC), a counter-terrorism court. The charges were “insulting the rulers of the country”, “inciting public opinion”, “accusing security officers of killing protesters in Awamiyya”, “ridiculing Islamic religious figures” and “violating Article 6 of the Anti-Cyber Crime Law”. He received a travel ban for eight years and a fine of 50,000 Saudi riyals (about $13,300 USD). The court also ordered his Twitter account closed.