The US State Department said the United States was looking into the case of women’s rights activist Salma Al-Shehab, who was sentenced to 34 years in prison in Saudi Arabia.

“Exercising free speech to protect women’s rights should not be criminalized, it should never be criminalized,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.

A Saudi Arabian appeals court has sentenced a Saudi doctoral feminist activist to jail on charges of “assisting” opponents seeking to “destabilize the state” in the wake of the tweets.

The decision comes as part of a widespread crackdown on activists and human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia, with jail time and a long-term travel ban.

Last June, a Saudi Arabian court sentenced 34-year-old Salma Al-Shehab, a mother of two, to 6 years in prison with a suspended sentence for three and a travel ban for the same period.

The verdict came after Al-Shehab was found guilty of “sending something that would disrupt public order and destabilize the security of society and the stability of the state” on Twitter.

However, on August 9, the District Court of Appeal, following an appeal by the prosecutor’s office and her representative, ruled to increase the punishment and sentenced her to 34 years in prison with a travel ban for the same period.

In its new ruling, the court stated that “it did not appear to the court that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the defendant would not return to any of the crimes” of which she is accused.

According to the case file, she has the right to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision within 30 days of receiving the court’s decision.

Al-Shehab is not a prominent activist, and her Twitter account has about 2,600 followers, and her tweets were related to women’s rights in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Shehab, who is studying for a doctorate in dentistry at the University of Leeds in England, was arrested while on holiday in Saudi Arabia in January 2021.

Human rights groups have condemned the sentence, which is “the longest prison sentence ever handed down” to any activist in Saudi Arabia.