UK student Salma al-Shehab released from Saudi prison, say campaigners

Human rights organizations have recently called on the Saudi government to grant Salma al-Shehab, a PhD candidate at the University of Leeds, "complete freedom," including the right to travel and complete her studies in the UK. Shehab was sentenced to decades in prison for comments made on Twitter in 2022, and human rights organizations report that she has been released from a Saudi prison.

Supporters and advocates of Shehab have welcomed the news, but also emphasized the suffering she has endured and called on the Saudi government to ensure she can travel freely. Alqst, a UK-based human rights organization that has been documenting Shehab's case and advocating for her freedom, said Shehab was arbitrarily detained for four years because of "her peaceful activism."

"She must now be granted complete freedom, including the right to travel, in order to complete her studies," Alqst stated. Dana Ahmed, a Middle East researcher at Amnesty International, said, "For more than four years, she has suffered one serious injustice after another... simply because she supported women's rights on Twitter and retweeted tweets by Saudi women's rights activists." Ahmed emphasized that "the Saudi Arabian authorities must now ensure that she is not subjected to travel bans or any further punitive measures."

It is reported that the 36-year-old women's rights activist and mother of two sons was arrested in January 2021 while on vacation in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. Human rights organizations said that Shehab was held in solitary confinement for nearly 300 days and subjected to lengthy interrogations before being tried and convicted for her tweets and retweets on Twitter (now known as X). She was initially sentenced to six years in prison in March 2022, but on appeal six months later, her sentence was drastically increased to 34 years in prison, plus a 34-year travel ban, drawing international criticism of the Saudi government. In January 2023, her sentence was reduced to 27 years, and then again to four years, suspended for four years, in a retrial last September.

Alqst and other organizations published an open letter last month welcoming the Saudi court's decision in September to reduce Shehab's sentence, calling it "an important step towards correcting a serious miscarriage of justice." In 2023, Shehab and seven other women went on a hunger strike to protest their imprisonment and call for their release. Human rights organizations said that Shehab's health deteriorated in prison. Ahmed said that while Shehab's release is cause for celebration, it is also an opportunity to reflect on others serving time in Saudi Arabia for their online activities, specifically mentioning Manahel al-Otaibi and Noura al-Qahtani, who were imprisoned for speaking out publicly for women's rights, and the case of aid worker Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for satirical tweets.

Ahmed urged, "We urge the Saudi authorities to release them immediately and to end their relentless crackdown on the right to freedom of expression completely." Amnesty International's Dana Ahmed emphasized, "The Saudi Arabian authorities must now ensure that she is not subjected to travel bans or any further punitive measures." Middle East Eye has requested comment from the UK Foreign Office.