Leeds University Student sentenced to 34 years for Twitter comments
In what is believed to be the longest sentence ever handed to a critic of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a Leeds university student and mother-of-two has been sentenced to 34 years in prison for comments made on Twitter.
In January 2021, PhD student Salma al-Shehab was on holiday in Saudi Arabia when she was arrested on sedition charges. She was charged with having a Twitter account and for retweeting critics of the Saudi leadership to her small online following.
A Leeds University spokesman said it was "deeply concerned" by Ms Shehab's case and was "seeking advice on whether there is anything we can do to support her."
Initially, the mother-of-two was sentenced to six years in prison. However this month she was handed a 34-year travel ban and a 34-year sentence as part of what human rights groups said was the most draconian sentence they had seen in cases involving critics of Saudi Arabia.
According to a translation of court records seen by a national broadsheet paper, the new charges include "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.
The European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights warned that the ruling "sets a dangerous precedent for women activists and human rights defenders." It also warned that the kingdom was pushing ahead with "grave violations against women activists without any hesitation."
Saudi human rights activists said Ms Shehab's sentence was one of several recent cases in which a sentence had been increased greatly at the appeals stage, as the kingdom widens its crackdown on criticism.
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