A Leeds University student who returned to Saudi Arabia for a holiday has been jailed for 34 years for having a Twitter account and for following and retweeting dissident activists.
Salma al-Shehab, 34, posted tweets calling for women's rights in Saudi Arabia. The tweets led to her being accused of using Twitter to 'cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security.'
The mum-of-two was initially sentenced to six years in jail, but her sentence was increased to 34 years at a Saudi terrorism court on Monday (August 15) after the activist appealed her sentence. She will also face a 34-year travel ban upon her release.
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The court cited Al-Shehab's social media activity during sentencing and referred to her tweets in support of women's rights in Saudi Arabia. The mum, whose two sons are aged four and six, had also expressed solidarity with imprisoned rights activists such as Loujain al-Hathloul and called for their release, reports the Daily Mail.
She would also sometimes retweet posts from dissident activists living in exile. Al-Shehab was arrested in January 2021, while on holiday, after she retweeted a post from Al-Hathloul's sister Lina which read: 'Freedom for Loujain Al-Hathloul ... Freedom for all prisoners of conscience. Your freedom is my first wish for this New Year - Happy New Year.'
Her arrest in Saudi Arabia came just days before she was due to fly back to England to continue her studies at the University of Leeds where she was a PhD student. Dr Bethany Al-Haidari, the Saudi case manager at the US-based human rights organisation, described the sentence as 'abhorrent'.
Said Dr Al-Haidari: "Saudi Arabia has boasted to the world that they are improving women's rights and creating legal reform, but there is no question with this abhorrent sentence that the situation is only getting worse. It is unfortunately no surprise that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman feels more empowered than ever in presiding over such egregious rights violations."
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