[Salma al-Shehab, a Leeds University student, was charged with
following and retweeting dissidents and activists ]
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SAUDI WOMAN GIVEN 34-YEAR PRISON SENTENCE FOR USING TWITTER  
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Stephanie Kirchgaessner
August 16, 2022
The Guardian
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_ Salma al-Shehab, a Leeds University student, was charged with
following and retweeting dissidents and activists _

Salma al-Shehab, 34, was accused of ‘assisting those who seek to
cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security by
following their Twitter accounts’., Photograph: democracy now

 

A Saudi student at Leeds University who had returned home to the
kingdom for a holiday has been sentenced to 34 years in prison for
having a Twitter
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following and retweeting dissidents and activists.

The sentencing by Saudi’s special terrorist court was handed down
weeks after the US president Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia
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which human rights activists had warned could embolden the kingdom to
escalate its crackdown
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dissidents and other pro-democracy activists.

The case also marks the latest example of how the crown
prince Mohammed bin Salman
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Twitter users in his campaign of repression, while simultaneously
controlling a major indirect stake in the US social media company
through Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund
(PIF).

Salma al-Shehab, 34, a mother of two young children, was initially
sentenced to three years in prison for the “crime” of using an
internet website to “cause public unrest and destabilise civil and
national security”. But an appeals court on Monday handed down the
new sentence – 34 years in prison followed by a 34-year travel ban
– after a public prosecutor asked the court to consider other
alleged crimes.

According to a translation of the court records, which were seen by
the Guardian, the new charges include the allegation that 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. It is believed that Shehab may still be
able to seek a new appeal in the case.

[Salma al-Shehab and her family.]

Salma al-Shehab and her family. Photograph: ESOHR

By all accounts, Shehab was not a leading or especially vocal Saudi
activist, either inside the kingdom or in the UK. She described
herself on Instagram
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159 followers – as a dental hygienist, medical educator, PhD student
at Leeds University and lecturer at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman
University, and as a wife and a mother to her sons, Noah and Adam.

Her Twitter profile showed she had 2,597 followers. Among tweets about
Covid burnout and pictures of her young children, Shehab sometimes
retweeted tweets by Saudi dissidents living in exile, which called for
the release of political prisoners in the kingdom. She seemed to
support the case of Loujain al-Hathloul, a prominent Saudi feminist
activist who was previously imprisoned, is alleged to have been
tortured for supporting driving rights for women, and is now living
under a travel ban.
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One person who knew Shehab said she could not stomach injustice. She
was described as well-educated and an avid reader who had arrived in
the UK in 2018 or 2019 to pursue her PhD at Leeds. She had returned
home to Saudi Arabia
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holiday and had intended to bring her two children and husband back to
the UK with her. She was then called in for questioning by Saudi
authorities and eventually arrested and tried for her tweets.

A person who followed her case said Shehab had at times been held in
solitary confinement and had sought during her trial to privately tell
the judge something about how she had been handled, which she did not
want to state in front of her father. She was not permitted to
communicate the message to the judge, the person said. The appeals
verdict was signed by three judges but the signatures were illegible.

Twitter declined to comment on the case and did not respond to
specific questions about what – if any – influence Saudi Arabia
has over the company. Twitter previously did not respond to questions
by the Guardian about why a senior aide to Prince Mohammed, Bader
al-Asaker
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has been allowed to keep a verified Twitter account with more than 2
million followers, despite US government allegations that he
orchestrated an illegal infiltration of the company which led
anonymous Twitter users to be identified and jailed by the Saudi
government. One former Twitter employee has been convicted by a US
court
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connection to the case.

One of Twitter’s biggest investors is the Saudi billionaire Prince
Alwaleed bin Talal, who owns more than 5% of Twitter through his
investment company, Kingdom Holdings. While Prince Alwaleed still
serves as chairman of the company, his control over the group faced
questions in the US media, including the Wall Street Journal, after it
emerged that the Saudi royal – a cousin of the crown prince – had
been held captive at the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh for 83 days
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The incident was part of a broader purge led by Prince Mohammed
against other members of the royal family and businessmen, and
involved allegations of torture, coercion and expropriation of
billions in assets into Saudi coffers.

In a 2018 Bloomberg interview of Prince Alwaleed
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which was conducted in Riyadh seven weeks after his release, the
billionaire acknowledged he had reached a “confirmed
understanding” with the Saudi government, apparently in connection
to his release, which was confidential.

More recently, Kingdom Holding announced in May that it had sold
about 17% of its company to the PIF
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where Prince Mohammed serves as chairman, for $1.5bn. That, in turn,
makes the Saudi government a significant indirect investor in Twitter.
According to Twitter, investors do not play a role in managing the
company’s day-to-day business.

The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights condemned Shehab’s
sentence, which it said was the longest prison sentence to ever be
brought against any activist. It noted that many female activists have
been subjected to unfair trials that have led to arbitrary sentences
and have been subjected to “severe torture”, including sexual
harassment.

Khalid Aljabri, a Saudi who is living in exile and whose sister and
brother are being held in the kingdom, said the Shehab case proved
Saudi Arabia’s view that dissent equates to terrorism.

“Salma’s draconian sentencing in a terrorism court over peaceful
tweets is the latest manifestation of MBS’s ruthless repression
machine,” he said, referring to the crown prince. “Just like
[journalist Jamal] Khashoggi’s assassination, her sentencing is
intended to send shock waves inside and outside the kingdom – dare
to criticise MBS and you will end up dismembered or in Saudi
dungeons.”

While the case has not received widespread attention, the Washington
Post on Tuesday published a scathing editorial
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Saudi Arabia’s treatment of the Leeds student and said her case
showed that “commitments” the president had received on reforms
were “a farce”.

“At the very least, Mr. Biden must now speak out forcefully and
demand that Ms. Shehab be released and allowed to return to her sons,
4 and 6 years old, in the United Kingdom, and to resume her studies
there,” it read.

_Stephanie Kirchgaessner is the Guardian's US investigations
correspondent, based in Washington DC. Twitter @skirchy
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Email: [email protected]. Click here
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Stephanie Kirchgaessner's public key_

_Additional reporting by Robyn Vinter in Leeds_

* Saudi Arabia
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* women's rights
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* repression
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