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A Saudi woman sentenced to 34 years in prison for posting anti-government tweets knew people were reporting on her but didn’t take it seriously, a friend said Thursday.
Salma al-Shehab, a member of the Shia minority in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, had a doctorate in Britain and was arrested while on holiday in January 2021.
On August 9, she was sentenced to 34 years in prison for supporting dissidents who were trying to disrupt “public order” in the kingdom by forwarding her tweets.
A friend of Shehab, who asked not to be identified for her own safety, said she did not take the threats of denunciation seriously.
“We’ve talked about people harassing her on Twitter and reporting her tweets to security services online,” the friend told AFP.
“She didn’t think the authorities would be interested in someone with less than 2,000 followers,” she added.
Shehab now has around 3,000 followers on Twitter.
As a mother of two and a PhD student at Britain’s University of Leeds, School of Medicine, she was banned from traveling abroad for a further 34 years as part of the ruling.
The oil-rich Gulf state has cracked down on human rights activists, many of whom have been jailed and banned from traveling.
Women’s rights activists were also targeted.
The crackdown intensified after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman became the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia in 2017.
The authorities have made available an app called “Kollona Amn” (Arabic for “We are all security”) that “enables all citizens and residents of Saudi Arabia to take on the role of a police officer”.
It is used to report accidents or crimes – but can also be a tool to denounce political opponents.
Shehab mostly tweeted about women’s rights in the conservative country.
She was jailed just weeks after US President Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia, a controversial trip over the kingdom’s human rights record.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters Wednesday that Washington regularly raises the human rights issue with Riyadh.
“Exercising freedom of expression to advocate for women’s rights should not be criminalized,” he said.
The human rights organization Amnesty International has called for Shehab’s immediate and unconditional release. It described her detention as “outrageous”.
In a statement on its website, the University of Leeds said it was “deeply concerned” by the development “and is seeking advice on whether there is anything we can do to support it”.
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