Salma al-Shehab, a Saudi student at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, was sentenced to 34 years in prison in Saudi Arabia for her activity on the social network Twitter, mainly for following and sharing content from activists and dissidents.
The mother of two boys (ages six and four) was initially sentenced to three years for the “crime” of using a website to “cause public disturbances and destabilize civil and national security”. But this Monday, August 15, an appeals court issued another sentence after new accusations: according to The Guardian, the English newspaper that had access to the documents, now Salma al-Shehab is also being accused of “help those who seek to cause public disturbances and destabilize civil and national security” by following their Twitter accounts.
The new sentence follows Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia in mid-July – the US president’s visit to this country prompted human rights activists to warn of the danger of intensifying the crackdown on dissidents and pro-Saudi activists. democracy-.
According to Democracy Now, Salma al-Shehab is a “women’s rights advocate” and the first female activist to receive such a long sentence. However, the student does not indicate anywhere that she is an activist, neither in the UK nor in Saudi Arabia, and her community of followers on social networks is very small.
The 33-year-old PhD student, who identifies herself as a dental hygienist on her Instagram account (and not a political activist), was two days away from returning home to the UK when she was arrested in January 2021 while passing through over there. vacation in Saudi Arabia, revealed the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights.
It is believed that Shehab may try to appeal the sentence again.
Source: Observadora
