Loujain al-Hathloul, the Saudi women’s rights activist detained three years ago by the Saudi government, was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison after being found guilty of spying on foreign parties and plotting against the kingdom.
But the court suspended two years and 10 months of her sentence and rolled back the start of her prison sentence to May 2018, meaning that she only has three more months to serve.
Although human rights activists say she should never have been detained for so long without charge, the prospect of serving just another three months in prison will help to neutralize a potentially damaging initial confrontation with the Biden government that would have occurred if she had been locked up by another 20 years, as it seemed possible at one point.
Saudi courts have already released kingdom prosecutors from torturing her in prison, saying there was no evidence that she was transferred from Jeddah’s governorship to a secret location where she was tortured and sexually harassed.
News of his verdict was first tweeted by the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, which said a Saudi court “sentenced a detainee with an incitement to change the kingdom’s ruling regime and cooperate with individuals and entities to fulfill a foreign agenda”.
She was arrested in May 2018 along with four other human rights activists. She says she was not allowed to speak to anyone for seven weeks after her arrest.
The Saudi kingdom has repeatedly denied that she was arrested for campaigning for women’s right to drive, a right that was granted in 2018, but instead for mounting a campaign to undermine the royal family. The case underlines how little political dissent is allowed within the kingdom.
The original charge sheet included meeting British and European diplomats, as well as applying for a job at the United Nations and using his prison on his resume. She was also accused of speaking to foreign news agencies and international human rights groups.
Other charges included joining a group on the Telegram messaging app, where she discussed human rights and a new constitution, making contact with human rights defender Khaled al-Omair and receiving € 50 daily expenses from foreign organizations when participating in international conferences to talk about women in Saudi Arabia.
Other alleged offenses involve tweets about his trip from the United Arab Emirates to Saudi Arabia and documents found on his laptop, including a pdf file of the UN convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. She was also accused of communicating with European embassies about her case at the time when Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman was supposed to visit these countries.
After more than two years of detention and some internal debates in the kingdom about how to handle their case, the Saudis waited until after hosting the G20 summit in November to transfer their case to the specialized criminal court.
Amnesty International was one of many groups to contrast the Saudi claim to empower women with their arrest and torture of peaceful activists.
At the last minute, on December 10, the Saudis dropped the charges that included her keeping in touch with the British, European and Dutch embassies, possibly because the three are considered friendly powers and their involvement in the case may generate high levels of protest.
Hathloul’s sister, Lina, wrote in a tweet that although the decision meant that her sister could be released in March 2021, she was also subject to a five-year travel ban. She said that both her sister and the prosecutor could appeal.
The suspension of Hathloul’s prison sentence also depends on her not repeating any of the offenses in the next three years, a condition that would block her freedom of speech, assuming she is forced to stay in Saudi Arabia.
The audience was attended by his family. Saudi state newspapers say she admitted to the crimes.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, described the sentence as shameful, saying that Hathloul “demanded his rights, instead of waiting for the Saudi prince to grant them at his own majestic pace as a matter of real prerogative.”
Alaa Al-Siddiq, executive director of ALQST, the Saudi human rights group, said: “The fact that she was condemned by the anti-terrorism law, based on accusations related solely to her peaceful activism, is the latest scam of justice one flawed judgment from start to finish and without reliable judicial evidence ”.
Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, said she found the sentence disturbing, adding that defending human rights is not terrorism.
The human rights group Grant Liberty said: “Loujain is a peaceful defender of basic freedoms that the rest of the world takes for granted. In response, she was arrested, tortured and abused by the Saudi authorities – but they call her a terrorist. “