Salma al-Shehab, a 34-year-old PhD student at the UK’s Leeds University who was arrested last year in Saudi Arabia, has recently received a prison sentence of 34 years for allegedly retweeting and following dissents and activists on Twitter.
She was entered into the system when she visited her home for the holidays while her sentence elicited condemnation from human rights organizations based on the severe ruling, reported The Guardian on Monday.
The sentencing is reportedly one of the longest for a Saudi women’s rights activist.
Originally a special terrorist court sentenced Salma to three years in prison claiming that she had used the internet to “cause public turmoil in her attempt to disrupt civil and national security”.
On Monday, her case was revised by an appeals court to imprisonment and travel ban of 34 years each.
Human Rights Foundation, The Freedom Initiative, the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights and ALQST for Human Rights, among other human rights organizations, called for her release and condemned the ruling.
“We call on Saudi authorities to free Salma, allowing her to return to care for the children and complete her studies safely in the United Kingdom,” quoted The Freedom Initiative adding: “Tweeting in solidarity with women’s rights activists is not a crime.”
The Guardian report said despite the allegation against her on the court document, she is barely a notable activist locally or even abroad since she only had 2,597 followers on Twitter and 159 followers on Instagram.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom said: “Shehab’s religious identity as a Shia Muslim is believed to have been a factor in her arrest and harsh sentencing.”
The Berlin-based European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) described Shehab as “a specialist in oral and dental medicine, a PhD student at the University of Leeds, UK, and a lecturer at Princess Nourah University,” who is also married with two sons. Days before her scheduled return to the UK, she was arrested on January 15, 2021, as per reports.
“The Public Prosecution accused her of several charges, including sabotaging the security of society and the stability of the state, spreading defiance, providing aid to those who seek to obstruct public order, and spreading false and slanderous rumours on Twitter. Appeals court judges invoked the counterterrorism regime and its financing to justify the harsh ruling, even though all charges against her relate to her Twitter activity,” ESOHR said in its statement.
“Salma was active during campaigns demanding the removal of the guardianship system over women by their male relatives. She also called for freedom for male and female prisoners of conscience, like human rights defender Loujain Al-Hathloul and members of ACPRA,” it added.
The sentence was handed down weeks after US President Joe Biden met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah on July 15.
Biden was condemned for meeting with the Arab leader who has been accused of various transgressions of human rights, including ordering the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi critic and Washington Post columnist.