Imprisoned Saudi activist Salma al-Shehab ‘reported on app’

PhD scholar Salma al-Shehab acquired the longest-known sentence for a Saudi activist on Monday.

Salma al-Shehab interviewed by Al Thaqafia TV on the 2014 Riyadh Worldwide E book Honest [Screengrab]

A Saudi Arabian scholar sentenced to 34 years in jail for her social media exercise had been reported to the nation’s authorities utilizing a crime-reporting app, highlighting using know-how by Saudi authorities to clamp down on dissent.

Salma al-Shehab, a 34-year-old mom of two youngsters who was learning at Leeds College in the UK, was reported for her Twitter content material via the “Kollona Amn”, or “We Are All Safety” app, the Guardian newspaper reported.

It's unknown if the authorities straight responded to the report, however two months after it was issued, al-Shehab was arrested.

In response to the Guardian, the sentence handed to al-Shehab on Monday is the longest-known sentence for a ladies’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Shehab had initially been sentenced by Saudi Arabia’s particular terrorist courtroom to 3 years in jail for utilizing Twitter to “trigger public unrest and destabilise civil and nationwide safety”.

However through the enchantment course of, a public prosecutor requested the courtroom to incorporate different alleged crimes and al-Shehab acquired a 34-year jail sentence, adopted by a 34-year journey ban.

It's believed that al-Shehab should still have the ability to enchantment the brand new sentence.

Salma al-Shehab, 34-year-old Saudi ladies's rights activist, PhD candidate @UniversityLeeds and mom of two younger youngsters has been sentenced to 34 years in jail adopted by a 34 yr journey ban.
HER CRIME: Utilizing @Twitter#SaudiArabiapic.twitter.com/pCKqI1QOBS

— Dr. Nina Ansary (@drninaansary) August 17, 2022

The case has sparked issues relating to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s (MBS) crackdown on dissidents and activists within the nation.

Outstanding ladies’s rights activists, comparable to Loujain Alhathloul, in addition to spiritual students comparable to Salman al-Awdah, have been imprisoned, whereas dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed on the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.

“Salma’s shockingly harsh sentence sends a chilling message to Saudi society – that regardless of their rhetoric of reforms, the authorities stay as hellbent as ever on crushing any type of peaceable dissent,” mentioned Lina Alhathloul, the sister of Loujain, who continues to face restrictions in Saudi Arabia regardless of being launched.

“By rehabilitating Saudi Arabia’s leaders, western states are giving the inexperienced gentle for such abuses to happen. As an alternative, sustained worldwide stress should be exerted to assist launch Salma and produce about significant progress on human rights within the nation,” Alhathloul, who's the pinnacle of monitoring and communications on the Saudi human rights group ALQST, advised Al Jazeera.

US following case

Al-Shehab’s sentencing comes just a few weeks after United States President Joe Biden’s go to to Saudi Arabia, the place he met MBS.

The US authorities has now mentioned that it's learning al-Shehab’s case.

“Exercising freedom of expression to advocate for the rights of ladies shouldn't be criminalised, it ought to by no means be criminalised,” State Division spokesperson Ned Value mentioned on Wednesday.

Al-Shehab’s Twitter account has greater than 2,900 followers and consists of retweets tweets of Saudi dissidents residing in exile.

The coed got here again to Saudi Arabia in December 2020 for a vacation and deliberate to carry her husband and youngsters along with her again to the UK. Nonetheless, throughout her keep she was referred to as in by the Saudi authorities for questioning and was then arrested in January 2021.

Al-Shehab was a PhD scholar at Leeds College, and likewise labored as a dental hygienist, medical educator and lecturer at Saudi Arabia’s Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman College.

The College of Leeds has expressed its issues relating to the sentence, saying it was “searching for recommendation on whether or not there's something we will do to help her”.