Salma al-Shehab returned to her country on vacation while studying for a doctorate at the University of Leeds and will no longer be able to leave the country
Salma al-Shehab, a student doctor of dentistry at the University of Leeds who returned to Saudi Arabia during his holidayshas been sentenced to 34 years in prison and 34 years without being able to leave the country for having an account on the social network Twitter and following and retweeting accounts of dissidents and women’s rights activists.
At first, the woman and mother of two children was sentenced to three years in prison for “provoking public disturbances and destabilizing civil and national security & rdquor; through the social network, but after an appeal, the sentence has been extended to 34 years behind bars and another 34 without being able to travel.
The sentence of the special court of Saudi terrorism was pronounced weeks after the visit of the president of the United States, Joe Bidento Saudi Arabia, which human rights activists had warned could embolden the kingdom to step up its crackdown on dissidents and other pro-democracy activists.
Crusade against Twitter
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The case is also the latest example of how the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has targeted users of Twitter in his campaign of repression, while at the same time controlling a significant indirect stake in the US social media company through the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).
His Twitter profile showed that he had 2,597 followers. Between tweets about the Covid pandemic and photos of his young children, Shehab sometimes retweeted tweets from Saudi dissidents living in exile, calling for the release of the kingdom’s political prisoners. She seemed to support the case of Loujain al-Hathloul, a prominent Saudi feminist activist who had already been imprisoned, who had allegedly been tortured for supporting the women’s driving rights and who now lives under the travel ban.