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- A court in Saudi Arabia sentenced the well-known activist and women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul to five years and eight months in prison, according to her supporters.
- Half of that, the two years and 10 months that al-Hathloul has already spent in prison, has been commuted to suspended sentence, his family said.
- This could allow the 31-year-old to be released in February or March. A five-year travel ban was also imposed.
Al-Hathloul wanted to “implement a foreign agenda within the kingdom with the Internet” and disrupt public order, according to a report from the news website Sabq in the ruling. They wanted to overthrow the system of government of the authoritarian state. Al-Hathloul was sentenced by a special court for terrorism offenses after a criminal court referred the case there. The sentence can be contested for 30 days.
Legend:
Loujain al-Hathloul in an undated recording.
Reuters
According to the judge, al-Hathloul confessed to the crime. He made his confessions voluntarily and without external coercion. Her family, however, had stated that Loujain had been tortured, including simulating drowning (“waterboarding”), flogging and electric shocks. Al-Hathloul went on hunger strikes twice to protest the conditions of his detention. The court rejected the torture accusations last week.
The UN Human Rights Office spoke of a “deeply disturbing” verdict. Al-Hathloul had been arbitrarily detained for two and a half years. The office supported an early release as part of the suspended sentence as an “urgent matter,” the Geneva-based office wrote on Twitter.
The family is shaken
Al-Hathloul’s sister harshly criticized the verdict. “Loujain and my parents (who act as his lawyers) had little time to prepare, so this process can hardly be considered fair.” Loujain “is not a terrorist, but an activist.” The condemnation of the reforms propagated by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the kingdom itself is “the utmost hypocrisy.” The family was “shocked” that Loujain had to spend just one more day in prison.
Al-Hathloul is one of the most internationally known activists in the strictly Islamic monarchy of Saudi Arabia and was best known for the campaign to end the driving ban for women. She was arrested in May 2018, just before the driving ban was lifted. The prosecutor had demanded the maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Probation will be lifted if Al-Hathloul commits a crime within the next three years. “She could be arrested for any act that is deemed illegal,” her supporters said.
