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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Stephanie Kirchgaessner

Saudi woman given 34-year prison sentence for using Twitter

Salma al-Shehab
Salma al-Shehab, 34, was accused of ‘assisting those who seek to cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security by following their Twitter accounts’. Photograph: democracy now

A Saudi student at Leeds University who had returned home to the kingdom for a holiday has been sentenced to 34 years in prison for having a Twitter account and for following and retweeting dissidents and activists.

The sentencing by Saudi’s special terrorist court was handed down weeks after the US president Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia, which human rights activists had warned could embolden the kingdom to escalate its crackdown on dissidents and other pro-democracy activists.

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