This Saudi Woman Jailed For 34 Years For Retweeting Activists On Twitter Has Been Freed After Four Years
Salma al-Shehab was sentenced for the "crime" of using an internet website to "cause public unrest and destabilize civil and national security".
Saudi authorities have released a 36-year-old Saudi woman studying in the UK, after she was jailed for using Twitter and following and retweeting activists.
Salma al-Shehab, who was studying her PhD at the University of Leeds, was detained when she returned to Saudi Arabia for a holiday in January 2021.
She was initially sentenced to six years for the “‘crime’ of using an internet website to ’cause public unrest and destabilize civil and national security’,” according to the Guardian.
Shehab had 2,597 followers on Twitter and only 159 followers on Instagram.
She tweeted about COVID burnout and shared photos of her boys, aged four and eight and sometimes retweeted Saudi dissidents in exile calling for political prisoners to be released.
She was seen to be supportive of women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who had been previously jailed for fighting for women’s rights to drive.
Hathloul was released in February 2021 after 1,001 days in prison but remains under a travel ban.
Shehab was found guilty of “assisting those who seek to cause public unrest and destabilize civil and national security by following their Twitter accounts” and retweeting their tweets, according to court records seen by the Guardian.
However, her sentence was then increased to 34 years followed by a 34-year travel ban, making it the longest known sentence for a women’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia, according to the Freedom Initiative, a non-profit advocating for prisoners wrongfully detained in the Middle East and North Africa.
Her case drew international criticism, with human rights groups calling her imprisonment arbitrary and unjust.
Amnesty International stated that her only “crime” was posting tweets in support of women's rights.
In June 2023, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared her detention unlawful and called for her release.
Her sentence was later reduced twice, first to 27 years and, then to four years with an additional four years suspended.
On Monday, Feb. 10, ALQST, a London-based Saudi rights group, confirmed Shebab had been released, but there has been no official acknowledgment from Saudi authorities.
She has reportedly left the prison and has been reunited with her two young children after four years in prison, according to the Guardian.
While Shehab is now free, concerns remain over her travel ban, which is blocking her from returning to the UK to complete her studies.
Lina al-Hathloul, Loujain al-Hathloul’s sister and the head of ALQST, said that Shehab’s husband had divorced her while she was in prison.
“We don’t know all the circumstances around this but it seems like it’s a pattern … women having divorces filed against them and not being informed of it,” Lina said.
She said Shehab’s family in Saudi Arabia is also subject to a travel ban, calling ita tactic to “make sure everyone lives in constant fear.”
Shehab’s case is seen as part of a wider crackdown on free speech in Saudi Arabia.
Lina said that while international pressure led to Shebab’s release, many others remain imprisoned for similar charges.
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