Comment BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia quietly sentenced a woman last week to 34 years in prison for her Twitter activity, marking Saudi Arabia’s longest sentence ever for a peaceful activist and is unleashing a new wave of fear among government critics, the three rights group said. The woman, Salma al-Shehab, was arrested in January 2021 in Saudi Arabia, where she was on holiday, days before the Saudi national and mother of two was due to return home to Britain, according to rights groups. The charges the 33-year-old faced all revolved around her Twitter activity, according to court documents. Shehab has been active on the social media platform during campaigns demanding the abolition of the country’s guardianship system, which gives men legal control over certain aspects of the lives of female relatives. He had called for the release of Saudi prisoners of conscience. Despite the promises, executions in Saudi Arabia have almost doubled since last year According to court records obtained by the Washington Post, Shehab was accused of using a social networking site “to disrupt public order, undermine the security of society and the stability of the state, and support those who had committed criminal acts under the anti-terrorist law and its financing”. The documents said he supported such people by “following their social media accounts and retweeting their tweets” and spreading false rumors. The documents went on to say that after an original conviction was appealed, it was decided that her prison term was too short “considering her crimes” and that her previous sentence had failed to “achieve deterrence and deterrence”. In addition to the 34-year prison sentence and subsequent 34-year travel ban, which begins after the prison sentence ends, the court ordered that her mobile phone be confiscated and her Twitter account “permanently closed”. The charges are familiar: Sowing rebellion and destabilizing the state are charges often used against activists in the kingdom who speak out against the status quo. Saudi Arabia has long enforced its anti-terrorism law against its citizens whose protests are deemed unacceptable, especially if they criticize the de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In late 2021, the original ruling against Shehab gave her six years in prison. When he appealed, however, it was increased to 34 — the country’s longest sentence for a peace activist, according to various human rights groups. Rights groups have repeatedly warned against the government’s recent use of the anti-terror law. In April, Human Rights Watch said laws such as “the notoriously abusive Anti-Terrorism Act and the Cybercrime Act contain vague and overbroad provisions that have been widely interpreted and abused.” Decisions are also often characterized by inconsistent and harsh sentences. As the penalty includes shutting down her Twitter account, at least one rights group is trying to ensure it is not shut down, said Lina al-Hathloul, head of monitoring and communications at ALQST, a London-based Saudi rights group. . “We are now working with Twitter to not shut it down, or to let them know that at least if they are asked to shut it down, it’s coming from the Saudi government and not from them,” he said. Twitter did not respond to a request for comment from The Post. In a statement on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia’s European Organization for Human Rights, which monitors arrests in the kingdom, said the decision to sentence Shehab under the anti-terrorism law “confirms Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on reformers and critics on social media.” networks as terrorists’. The group said the decision sets a dangerous precedent and shows that Saudi Arabia’s widely lauded efforts to modernize the kingdom and improve women’s rights “are not serious and fall under whitewashing campaigns it is conducting to improve its human rights record.” rights”. Saudi dissidents call Biden’s planned visit to kingdom a betrayal Before her arrest, Shehab was a lecturer at Princess Nourah University in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and a PhD candidate at the University of Leeds in Britain. She conducted exploratory research there on new techniques in oral and dental medicine and their applications in Saudi Arabia, said a colleague who worked with her at Leeds. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, described Shehab as a “wonderful” and “generous” colleague – “the type of person who always brings treats”. She never spoke publicly about politics, the colleague added, instead often talking about her children and showing friends and colleagues pictures of them. She missed her family very much. Shehab returned to Saudi Arabia in late 2019 and never returned to school in Britain. At first, this did not worry anyone, given the long period of coronavirus restrictions that began in March 2020 in England. But eventually, her colleague said, people started asking, “Has anyone heard of Salma?” “It was a shock to all of us because we thought, ‘How can a person like her be arrested?’ the person said. The University of Leeds did not respond to a request for comment from The Post. When asked if it was following Shehab’s case or had been involved in any efforts to secure her release, Britain’s Foreign Office told the Post via email that “ministers and senior officials have repeatedly raised concerns about the detention of women’s rights defenders to Saudi authorities and will continue to do so.” After dissident disappears in Canada, Saudi exiles fear danger Shehab belongs to the minority Shiite sect of Islam — considered heretical by many hardline Sunni Muslims, and whose followers in Saudi Arabia are often automatically viewed with suspicion by Sunni authorities. Saudi Arabia has often been criticized for its treatment of the Shia minority. Earlier this year, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in its annual human rights report that the kingdom “systematically discriminates against Muslim religious minorities,” including Shiites. Shehab’s last Twitter activity was on January 13, 2021, two days before her arrest, when she retweeted a classical Arabic song about losing the company of a loved one. On her Twitter page, which remains active, she has a pinned tweet with a prayer asking for forgiveness if she had ever unknowingly wronged another person and asking God to help her reject injustice and help those who face it. The tweet ends with “freedom to prisoners of conscience and every oppressed person in the world.” Timsit reported from France.
