A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a woman to 34 years in prison and another 34 years without being able to leave the country because while the woman was away studying she had followed and retweet several profiles of human rights activists. of women in that territory.
Salma al-Shehab was a student of Saudi origin at the University of Leeds (England) who returned to her native country in December 2020 to see her family. The woman, the mother of two children, intended to take them back to the United Kingdom with her husband, but unfortunately, her dream was cut short.
This is because a few days after returning to Saudi Arabia she was required by the country’s authorities to answer some questions, but al-Shebab never set foot on the street again. The reason? The woman followed several Twitter profiles of activists for freedom and women’s rights, in addition to the fact that she had retweeted several publications of the same nature.
A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a woman to 34 years in prison and another 34 years without being able to leave the country because while the woman was away studying she had followed and retweet several profiles of human rights activists. of women in that territory.
Salma al-Shehab was a student of Saudi origin at the University of Leeds (England) who returned to her native country in December 2020 to see her family. The woman, the mother of two children, intended to take them back to the United Kingdom with her husband, but unfortunately, her dream was cut short.
This is because a few days after returning to Saudi Arabia she was required by the country’s authorities to answer some questions, but al-Shebab never set foot on the street again. The reason? The woman followed several Twitter profiles of activists for freedom and women’s rights, in addition to the fact that she had retweeted several publications of the same nature.
Recall that Saudi Arabia is ruled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is known for his crackdown on dissidents and has become increasingly authoritarian and less permissive over the years.
When al-Shebab’s arrest occurred in 2020, the woman had been sentenced to three years in prison for the crime of using the Internet to “cause public disturbances and destabilize civil and national security” according to The Guardian.
However, last week an appeals court issued a new sentence believing that al-Shebab had committed more crimes against the country and its authorities, sentencing the woman to 34 years in prison and another 34 years later without being able to leave the prison. country.
In these new accusations, the sentence indicates that he had helped “those who seek to cause public disturbances and destabilize civil and national security by following their Twitter accounts and retweeting their tweets.
Worst of all, al-Shebab did not even have a great influence on the networks, since his Twitter profile had just over 2,500 followers and content contrary to the Saudi regime could only be seen on his profile on rare occasions.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights condemned al-Shehab’s sentence, saying it was the longest prison sentence ever passed on an activist. World public opinion has been against this incarceration since this only shows that, in Saudi Arabia, everything that is considered contrary to the authorities is considered and treated as terrorism.
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