A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a University of Leeds student to 34 years in prison for retweeting dissidents and spreading “false” rumours, according to rights groups.
Saudi national Salma al-Shehab, 34, a mother of two, was arrested during a visit to the kingdom in 2020 for messages she had posted on her Twitter account.
A court this month sentenced him to 34 years, including time served, said ALQST, a Saudi human rights group, and The Freedom Initiative, a US human rights organization. After that, she faces a 34-year travel ban. The sentence, seen as extremely harsh, comes amid a crackdown on dissidents and critics that has drawn condemnation from Western countries.
The once ultra-conservative kingdom is undergoing a transformation, with day-to-day ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reversing decades of religious restrictions while shaking up its oil-dependent economy. The moves have won him the support of many Saudis, but have been accompanied by repressive measures.
The decision of August 9, according to ALQST, was made public this week.
Last month, US President Joe Biden visited the kingdom and held a meeting with Prince Mohammed, in which he said he pressed the Saudi leader on human rights.
Biden came to office vowing to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” over the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi. The CIA had concluded that Prince Mohammed ordered the “capture or kill” mission, something that the prince denied it.
But Biden has since been forced to back down and seek Saudi Arabia’s help in boosting oil production to tame energy prices and rampant inflation.
ALQST said al-Shehab had been accused of supporting “those who seek to disrupt public order”, a reference to restoring support for jailed dissidents, and “publishing false and biased rumors on Twitter”.
“ALQST is deeply concerned about al-Shehab’s peaceful activism and the extraordinary extensions of her prison sentence, which goes far beyond the Saudi authorities’ already harsh standards of repression,” the group said in a statement.
A spokesman for the University of Leeds said al-Shehab is a postgraduate researcher in her final year at the university.
“We are deeply concerned to learn of this latest development in Salma’s case and are seeking advice on whether there is anything we can do to support her. Our thoughts remain with Salma, her family and friends among our close-knit community of postgraduate researchers,” the spokesperson said in an email to the Financial Times.
The sentence is subject to appeal. The government media center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prince Mohammed has faced an investigation into the arrests of activists, dissidents and bloggers. A Twitter account believed to belong to al-Shehab had repeated pleas for the release of the activists, including women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul.
Al-Hathloul, who had campaigned for the right to drive for women in the kingdom before the country allowed it in 2018, was released in 2021. However, she remains under a travel ban. Other activists remain imprisoned.
