We,
the undersigned NGOs, call on the international community to press
Saudi Arabian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release
women’s rights activist and academic Salma al-Shehab, who was
recently sentenced to 34 years in prison based on tweets in support
of women’s rights and for the respect of basic rights. It is the
longest known prison sentence handed down against a peaceful activist
for their free speech in Saudi Arabia, signalling an alarming
deterioration of the human rights situation in the country.
Salma al-Shehab,
a 34-year-old mother of two children, is a dental hygienist and PhD
student at Leeds University in the United Kingdom, where she was
residing before her detention. She was arrested on 15 January 2021
while on holiday in Saudi Arabia, and subjected to solitary
confinement
and lengthy sessions of questioning over a period of nine and a half
months before being brought before the Specialised Criminal Court
(SCC), a court used as an instrument
of repression
to silence dissent in the kingdom. Al-Shehab belongs to the country’s
Shi’a Muslim minority, who have long suffered from the government’s
repression.
On
9 August 2022, the Specialised Criminal Court of Appeal sentenced
al-Shehab to 34 years in prison after a grossly unfair trial, to be
followed by a travel ban of the same length. The charges against her
included "supporting those who seek to disrupt the public
order”" and publishing tweets “that disrupt the public
order”, in connection with posts on her account
where she expressed support for prisoners of conscience such as
women’s rights activist Loujain
al-Hathloul.
The sentence also includes closure of her Twitter account and
deactivation of her phone number.
Al-Shehab
was sentenced
under the kingdom’s draconian Counter-Terrorism and Anti-Cyber
Crime Laws, which include vaguely formulated provisions that
criminalise the rights to freedom of expression, association and
peaceful assembly in Saudi Arabia. She was initially handed down a
six-year sentence in March 2022, 14 months after being detained, but
her sentence was increased during the appeal process, resulting in
the longest known prison sentence against a peaceful activist in the
kingdom. This
ruling is subject to appeal in the Supreme Court.
We
strongly condemn the arbitrary arrest and unlawful sentencing of
al-Shehab, which marks a further escalation in the crackdown on free
speech in Saudi Arabia. In contrast to the authorities' rhetoric on
human rights, including women’s rights and legal reforms, the real
drivers of reform – the activists calling for basic rights –
continue to be ruthlessly targeted and silenced, with repressive laws
being used to criminalise their peaceful expression and activism.
Al-Shehab’s
unjust sentence follows the recent visit of US President Joe Biden to
Saudi Arabia, as well as French President Emmanuel Macron’s hosting
of Saudi Crown Prince and de-facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman in
Paris. Such high-level meetings, without firm preconditions being
set, have only emboldened the kingdom’s leadership to commit
further abuses, as many of us warned
before Biden’s trip.
As
global calls to hold Saudi Arabia’s leaders accountable – notably
over the state-sponsored murder of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 – have
become more muted, the authorities have reverted to their habitual
pattern of repression, an ongoing
feature
of the crown prince’s rule since 2017. It includes the arbitrary
arrest and detention
of people peacefully exercising their fundamental rights; lengthy
prison sentences for peaceful critics after grossly unfair trials;
arbitrary use of travel
bans
against activists once released from prison; deliberate medical and
administrative neglect leading to deaths in detention and the
inhumane conditions of detention centres holding migrant workers and
their families.
Meanwhile
the Saudi authorities have carried out 120
executions
so far this year – more than double the number for the whole of
2021 – including the execution
of 81 men on 12 March 2022, its largest mass execution in recent
decades.
Only
sustained international pressure on the Saudi authorities will lead
to meaningful progress towards full respect for human rights and
freedoms in the country. We therefore call on the international
community, especially states with diplomatic leverage such as the
United States and the United Kingdom, to press the Saudi authorities
to immediately and unconditionally release Salma al-Shehab and quash
her conviction, as well as release all others currently detained in
the kingdom for the peaceful exercise of their fundamental rights.
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