34-year-old Salma al-Shehab, a student at Leeds University was arrested for having a Twitter account, following and retweeting dissidents and activists. Shehab a Saudi national had returned to the kingdom for a holiday. She has been sentenced to 34 years in prison. The sentence comes weeks after Joe Biden visited the kingdom, which human rights activists had warned could had warned embolden the kingdom to step up its crackdown on dissidents and pro-democracy activists.
Shehab, a mother of two was initially sentenced to three years in prison. She was charged with the 'crime' of using an internet website to “cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security”. But, after a public prosecutor asked the court to consider the other alleged crimes, an appeals court handed the new sentence – 34 years in prison followed by a 34-year travel ban.
The charges read, “Shehab was “assisting those who seek to cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security by following their Twitter accounts” and by re-tweeting their tweets, the Guardian reported. She might still be able to appeal her sentence. On Twitter, Shehab is said to have supported Loujain al-Hathloul, a prominent Saudi feminist activist.
