The Saudi doctoral student liberated after being imprisoned for positions, activists say

A Saudi doctoral student from the University of Leeds was released from prison in Saudi Arabia after his judgment by critical activity of social networks was reduced, the activists said.

Salma Al-Shab, a mother of two 36-year-old children, was arrested in 2021 while on vacation in the gulf kingdom.

He was later imprisoned by a terrorism court for six years for supposedly “public order disturbing” and “destabilizing the social fabric” about the publications that request reforms and launch of activists.

The sentence increased to 34 years before reducing twice in appeal, first to 27 years and then four years with four additional years suspended. There was no immediate confirmation of the Saudi authorities.

The launch of Shehab was first reported by Alqst, a group of Saudi rights based in the United Kingdom, who said he had undergone “four years in arbitrary prison on the basis of his peaceful activism.”

“Now your total freedom must be granted, including the right to travel to complete your studies at the University of Leeds,” he added.

The heir prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, has supervised a wide repression of dissent in the last eight years, and peaceful critics on social networks have delivered long prison sentences or even the death penalty later of the judgments for the terrorism courts that the rights groups say that they are unfair.

Shehab, a dental hygienist and medical educator who was in the last year of his studies at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Leeds, published or published several messages asking for reforms and the release of prominent activists, clergy and other intellectuals before travel. The kingdom five years ago.

A position praised as “prisoners of conscience”, a group of activists of the rights of women leaders who were arrested just before the prohibition of women’s conduction was raised in 2018 and were then convicted of crimes against the State.

Amnesty researcher in the Middle East, Dana Ahmed, said that Shehab was convicted of terrorism positions “just because she tweeted in support of women’s rights and retweeted activists of the rights of Saudi women.”

“While today is a day to celebrate the launch of Salma, it is also an opportunity to reflect on the many others that serve equally long sentences in Saudi Arabia for their online activities,” he added.

“This includes other women, such as Manahel Al-Taibi, and Nouhah al-Qahtani, imprisoned for speaking for women’s rights, and Abdulrahman Al-Sadhan, imprisoned for 20 years by satirical tweets.”

The BBC has contacted the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the University of Leeds to comment.