A Saudi doctoral student at the University of Leeds in the UK was sentenced to 34 years in prison for her Twitter activities but was released after a significant drop in her sentence, rights groups announced Monday.
Salma al-Sheb, the mother of two, was jailed under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as part of a wider crackdown on the kingdom’s objections. The London-based Saudi rights group Alqst confirmed her release and called for her full freedom, including the right to travel to the UK to complete her research.
In January, ALQST and other rights groups reported that Al-Shehab’s sentence had dropped to four years’ prison, and another four years had been suspended. Amnesty International has also confirmed her release.
“She spent nearly 300 days in long solitary confinement, denied legal representation, and was later repeatedly convicted of terrorism and sentenced to decades of prison,” said Amnesty International’s Middle East. said researcher Dana Ahmed.
Al Shehub was first detained on January 15, 2021, just days before his due back in the UK while on a family holiday in Saudi Arabia. According to the official charge sheet, she was accused of disrupting public order and destabilizing social fabric due to her social media activities. Authorities claimed she had retweeted opposition accounts and spread the false rumors on Twitter, now known as X.
Both Washington-based Center for the Middle East Democracy and Freedom House welcomed her release.
“Al Sheb’s unfair and arbitrary punishment represents a fundamentally broken Saudi judicial system where the trial is not fair. Home.
Saudi officials have not admitted her release and did not respond to requests for comment from the Associated Press.
