Saudi girl sentenced to 34 years in jail for following, retweeting dissidents on Twitter

A 34-year-old Saudi girl, arrested final yr, has been sentenced to 34 years in jail for reportedly following and retweeting dissidents and activists on Twitter, prompting human rights organisations to sentence the cruel ruling. The girl, who’s a PhD scholar at UK’s Leeds University, had returned residence for holidays when she was booked, reported The Guardian.

The ruling is reportedly one of many longest jail sentences given to a Saudi girl’s rights defender.

Salma al-Shehab was initially sentenced to a few years in jail by a particular terrorist court docket. The court docket mentioned that Shehab used an web web site to “cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security”. Later, on Monday, an appeals court docket revised it to 34 years of imprisonment and a 34-year journey ban.

Several human rights organisations, together with the Human Rights Foundation, The Freedom Initiative, the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights and ALQST for Human Rights, have condemned the ruling and known as for her launch.

“We call on Saudi authorities to free Salma, allowing her to return to care for the children and to complete her studies safely in the United Kingdom,” mentioned The Freedom Initiative in a press release. “Tweeting in solidarity with women’s rights activists is not a crime, ” it added.

Report I #SaudiArabia: 34 years sentence towards the ladies’s proper activist #SalmaAlShehab

🔴 Read right here: https://t.co/1S7sMV0gxY pic.twitter.com/ATjTREgxJM

— ESOHR (@ESOHumanRightsE) August 16, 2022

A Guardian report mentioned that court docket paperwork allege that Shehab was “assisting those who seek to cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security by following their Twitter accounts” and by re-tweeting their tweets. The report added that she is hardly a distinguished activist within the nation or overseas, having 2,597 followers on Twitter and 159 followers on Instagram.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom mentioned: “Shehab’s religious identity as a Shi’a Muslim is believed to have been a factor in her arrest and harsh sentencing.”

Meanwhile, the Berlin-based European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) described Shehab as “a specialist in oral and dental medicine, a PhD student at the University of Leeds, UK, and a lecturer at Princess Nourah University”, who’s married and has two younger sons. She was arrested on January 15, 2021, days earlier than she was scheduled to return to the UK, mentioned reviews.

In the #Saudi authorities’ longest jail sentence ever for a peaceable activist, the Specialised Criminal Court of Appeal on 9 August handed down phrases totalling 34 years with out suspension to girls’s rights campaigner Salma al-Shehab. #SaudiArabiahttps://t.co/3bRLwqioec pic.twitter.com/fYgVrATNFX

— ALQST for Human Rights (@ALQST_En) August 15, 2022

“The Public Prosecution accused her of several charges, including undermining the security of society and the stability of the state, spreading sedition, providing aid to those who seek to disrupt public order, and spreading false and malicious rumours on Twitter. Appeals court judges invoked the counterterrorism regime and its financing to justify the harsh ruling, even though all charges against her relate to her Twitter activity,” ESOHR mentioned in a press release.

“Salma was active during campaigns demanding the lifting of the guardianship system over women by their male relatives. She also called for freedom for male and female prisoners of conscience, such as human rights defender Loujain Al-Hathloul and members of ACPRA,” it added.

The sentencing comes weeks after US President Joe Biden visited Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah on July 15. Biden was criticised for assembly with the Arab chief who has been accused of a number of human rights violations, together with the ordering of the assassination of Saudi critic and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.