Riyadh: A Saudi court has sentenced a woman to 34 years in prison for her activities on Twitter, according to court documents seen by AFP on Wednesday.
The verdict imposed on Salma al-Shehab for aiding dissidents who attempted to disrupt “public order” in the kingdom was handed down by the Saudi Court of Appeal on August 9, documents show.
Shehab, a Ph.D. student at Britain’s University of Leeds and a mother of two, has been handed a 34-year foreign travel ban as part of the sentence.
With almost 2,600 followers on Twitter, Shehab had frequently tweeted about women’s rights in the conservative Sunni Muslim country.
The ruling comes amid a crackdown on human rights activists in the oil-rich Gulf state, many of whom have been sentenced to prison terms and travel bans. It also comes less than a month after a visit to Saudi Arabia by US President Joe Biden, who was criticized for his decision to travel to the kingdom despite its human rights record.
Shehab was arrested in Saudi Arabia in January 2021 while on holiday from her studies in the UK.
The 34-year-old was initially sentenced to six years in prison in June, including three years’ probation and an equal length of the time travel ban, before the appeals court toughened the sentence this month.
According to court documents, his final judgment can be appealed to the Kingdom’s highest court within 30 days.
The London-based human rights group ALQST condemned the sentence, describing it as “the longest prison sentence ever imposed on a peaceful activist by the Saudi authorities”.“This appalling ruling ridicules the Saudi authorities’ calls for reforms for women and the legal system,” said Lina al-Hathloul, ALQST’s communications chief.
A close friend of Shehab, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said she “didn’t think his Twitter activity was causing him any problems until she was surprised by his arrest”.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, is credited with introducing several pro-women reforms, including lifting the ban on driving and mandating the veil.
But such reforms have been accompanied by a crackdown on women’s rights activists, as part of a broader campaign against dissenters.