Saudi Arabia Lady was Given a 34-year Prison Term for Tweeting
A Saudi woman was given a 34-year prison sentence because she had retweeted campaigners and shared articles on Twitter advocating for women’s rights to drive. In January 2021, while on vacation in Saudi Arabia, Salma al-Shehab was arrested and thrown in jail. She was in the doctoral program at Leeds University in the United Kingdom. Shehab was first sentenced to six years in prison for using social media to “disturb public order and destroy the security and stability of the state” by sharing tweets from exiled Saudi activists calling for the release of political prisoners.
U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) personally approved the murder of Saudi writer and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. The Post says that in the appeal of Shehab’s case, prosecutors fought for a harsher sentence under Saudi cybercrime and anti-terrorism laws. On August 8, Shehab was given a much harsher sentence of 34 years.
The harsh penalty is a further warning of the ongoing risks faced by Saudi activists, especially those who publicly push for reform. Human rights groups were quite critical of Vice President Joe Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia in July. He justified his trip in an opinion piece for the Washington Post, writing that it was necessary to protect the region’s energy resources and vital trade routes. During the trip, Biden said he told Saudi officials that he thought MBS was behind the killing of Khashoggi. However, a number of sources have disputed this story.
As reported by The Guardian in its coverage of Shehab’s case, MBS indirectly holds a sizable stake in Twitter by virtue of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth. Several other prominent Twitter investors have ties to Saudi Arabia: Elon Musk, according to text messages released as part of a shareholder dispute at Tesla, expected the PIF to assist him in taking the company private in 2018.