A gay Saudi social media star said he was facing prison after a picture of him wearing short shorts at the beach caught the attention of police.

Suhail al-Jameel, 23, wrote on Snapchat on Sunday that was arrested over his outfit then charged with spreading nudity online after police saw an October 6 photo of him in the shorts.

Saudi Arabia introduced new public decency laws in late September, one of which explicitly warned men not to wear shorts.

al-Jameel openly documented his sexuality on Snapchat and Twitter and posted makeup tutorials, dance videos, and images in revealing outfits. Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia.

Some Saudis cried hypocrisy on social media, given the contrast with a video of two western women swimming in bikinis in the Red Sea, which went viral as a symbol of a new, tolerant Saudi Arabia.

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A gay social media personality from Saudi Arabia says he is facing prison for posting a picture of himself in leopard print short shorts on Twitter.

Suhail al-Jameel, 23, posted a statement to his Snapchat on Sunday saying authorities had charged him with sharing nudity online, after initially detaining him for wearing shorts at the beach on October 6.

"In 2019 LGBTQ are not welcome in Saudi Arabia, you must live in secret and can't live in peace. You want tourism but you won't give us freedoms," al-Jameel, who has 170,000 Twitter followers, wrote.

"I take a photo of myself wearing shorts at the beach and I go to jail for wearing shorts. Then the police change my charges to electronic crimes for sharing photos of nudity. How am I nude if I am wearing shorts on a hot beach?"

al-Jameel did not specify how long he thought he could be detained for. Fans of his on Twitter posting under the #freesuhail hashtag said it was three years.

Insider has been unable to independently verify this.

In late September, the Shura council, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman's advisory chamber, approved 19 new public decency laws, one of which stated that men and women should dress conservatively.

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The laws were introduced to help tourists arriving in the kingdom on the new tourist visa avoid violating Islamic custom. They specifically warned against wearing shorts, exposing the midriff, or exposing a lot of skin in general.

This month, young Saudis on Twitter were shocked and elated after a video of two swimsuit-clad western women swimming in the Red Sea went viral. Many considered it symbolic of the country's commitment to modernizing.

Fans of al-Jameel, however, used the images to express disgust at the kingdom's double standard over the divergent way it treats locals and tourists.

Read more: Saudi Arabia is enlisting Instagram travel influencers to help repair its tattered reputation

The Abu Dhabi-based news outlet Erem News reported that al-Jameel has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia before, without giving details.