Fact Check: King Salman of Saudi Arabia Has NOT died

Fact Check

  • by: Rebaz Majeed
Fact Check: King Salman of Saudi Arabia Has NOT died Still Alive

Did Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saudi die? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that he has died and the video of the official announcement circulating announces the death of Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in 2015.

The claim appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published on TikTok by @rajaperang17 on April 15, 2023, under the title "we belong to Allah and to him we return. King Salman is dead."

This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:

TikTok screenshot

(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed May 24 13:17:40 2023 UTC)

The claim has been published by some other TikTok accounts (archived here) in different timelines. Some of the videos include footage of an official announcement from a Saudi Arabia TV channel, announcing his death.

Screenshot 2023-05-24 at 15.23.51.png

However, this footage dates back to 2015, and it is the announcement of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud's death, not King Salman's.

While these videos claim that King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is dead, today, May 24, 2023, King Salman sent a letter to the President of Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki, on the Independence Day of Eriteria, that has been published by Saudi Press Agency, a media outlet affiliated with the Ministry of Media.


  Rebaz Majeed

Rebaz Majeed is a fact-checker at Lead Stories. He is a multilingual freelance journalist and researcher. He worked for five years as a reporter for Voice of America (VOANews) in Iraq. Currently, he is pursuing his MA in Interdisciplinary Studies of the Middle East at Free Berlin University. Rebaz brings extensive knowledge and expertise to his role at LeadStories.

Read more about or contact Rebaz Majeed

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