A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a woman to 45 years in prison for a social media post, a rights group said, in the latest instance of crackdown on female activists that followed a visit to the kingdom by US President Joe Biden was.
Noura bint Saeed al-Qahtani was convicted by the Saudi Specialized Criminal Court “potentially within the past week” of “tearning the (Saudi) social fabric by using the Internet” and “violating public order by using social media”. The Washington-based DAWN organization said in a statement, citing court documents.
The Saudi government’s media office did not respond to a request for comment.
The DAWN said little was known about Qahtani or his social media posts, and that his case was under investigation.
Weeks after Qahtani was convicted, Salma al-Shahab, a mother of two and doctoral candidate at the University of Leeds in the UK, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for following and retweeting dissidents and activists on Twitter.
During his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in July, Biden cited human rights concerns as a major sore point in relations between Washington and its traditional ally Riyadh.
Washington said last week it had raised “significant concerns” with Saudi Arabia over Shehab’s sentence, which included a 34-year travel ban for her tweets.
The Qahtani and Shehab cases outlined a crackdown on dissent driven by de facto Saudi ruler Prince Mohammed, even as he supported reforms such as allowing women to drive and pursuing projects to create jobs .
Relatives of Saudi political prisoners were initially hoping that Biden’s visit would help in the release of loved ones who have been jailed as part of the crackdown.
Abdullah Al-Oudh, director of research for the Gulf region at DAWN, said that in both the Shebab and Qahtani cases, Saudi officials used “abusive” laws to target and punish Saudi citizens for criticizing the government on Twitter.
“But that is only half the story because even the Crown Prince would not allow such retaliatory and excessive sentences if he felt that these actions were met with meaningful condemnation by the United States and other Western governments.” Clearly, they are not,” Awadh said in the Dawn’s statement.
Saudi officials say there are no political prisoners in Saudi Arabia. “We have prisoners in Saudi Arabia who have committed crimes and who have been tried and found guilty by our courts,” Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir told Reuters last month.
“The notion that he would be described as a political prisoner is ridiculous,” he said.
Tensions over oil-rich Saudi Arabia’s human rights record have strained its ties with the United States, including women’s rights and the 2018 murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
— the ending —