Another woman, Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani, from Saudi Arabia was sentenced to decades in prison for using Twitter.
According to court documents seen by a human rights organization, another Saudi Arabian woman has been sentenced to decades in prison for using social media to “violate the public order” by the country’s terrorism court.
Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani reportedly received a 45-year prison term for using the internet to undermine the nation’s “social fabric. Such are the words of Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), a human rights organization founded by allegedly slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
However, other than the duration of her sentence, little is known about Saeed’s age or the specifics of her arrest. Saeed was detained, according to Guardian, which obtained the Dawn story, for tweeting her opinions—and doing so from an anonymous account.
There has been another case of such an arrest made in Saudi Arabia
Similarly, Salma al-Shehab, a 34-year-old Ph.D. candidate at Leeds University and mother of two children, was found guilty and given a 34-year prison sentence after she returned to Saudi Arabia for the holidays.
Salma was charged with “public unrest” and “destabilizing civil and national security,” similar to Saeed. Salma reportedly traveled back to Saudi Arabia for a vacation, but the Saudi authorities apprehended her and brought her in front of a special court for terrorist cases, which delivered a harsh judgment.
Shehab testified before a Saudi court that she had endured abuse and harassment while she was being held, including being forced to undergo interrogations after being administered medications that left her feeling drained.
“It is impossible not to make connections”: Abdullah Alaoudh
When given access to the court records that disclosed Saeed’s case, Abdullah Alaoudh, the director for the Gulf region at Dawn, said that the string of arrests might be related to the meeting between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and President Biden last month.
“It is impossible not to connect the dots between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s meeting with President Biden last month in Jeddah and the uptick in the repressive attacks against anyone who dares criticize the Crown Prince or the Saudi government for well-documented abuses,” said Alaoudh to The Guardian.
It is important to remember that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), a sovereign wealth fund, owns a significant portion of the stakes of Twitter. In addition, a US court found an ex-Twitter employee guilty of espionage for Saudi officials earlier this month. According to reports, Ahmad Abouammo made money by selling Twitter user data.
