On the 3^rd anniversary of her arrest, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) once again calls on the international community to put real pressure on the government of Saudi Arabia to ensure the release of women’s rights defender and academic Salma Al-Shehab. She was sentenced to 27 years in prison solely for tweets she published in support of women’s rights, including tweeting about woman human rights defender Loujain Al-Hathloul during her detention.

On 15 January 2021, Al-Shehab was arrested after going to Saudi Arabia to spend the holiday with her family. She was subjected to ill-treatment during her arrest and for long hours of daily investigation over a period of nine and a half months. After that, her trial began before the Specialised Criminal Court, the terrorism court established in 2008 to try members of terrorist organisations, but often used to imprison human rights defenders. She was initially handed down a six-year sentence in March 2022, 14 months after being detained.

On 09 August 2022, the Specialised Criminal Court (SCC) sentenced her to a 34-year prison sentence and a travel ban for the same period of time after the completion of her sentence. At the time, it was the heaviest sentence that any peaceful activist had ever received in Saudi Arabia for social media posts.  

Among several charges, the Public Prosecution charged her with “destabilising the security of society and the stability of the state”, “spreading sedition”, “providing aid to those who seek to disrupt public order” and “spreading false and malicious rumours on Twitter”. The Law of Combating Crimes of Terrorism and its Financing of 2017, and the Anti-Cyber Crime Law of 2007 were used in the harsh verdict against her.

It is worth noting that she was not allowed to hire a lawyer throughout the strenuous investigation stage, in flagrant violation of Article 4 of the Saudi Law of Criminal Procedure.

On 25 January 2023, the SCC in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, reduced the prison sentence to 27 years in prison, followed by a 27-year travel ban, after the Supreme Court returned her case to the SCC’s appeals chamber to consider it again.

Her account on X (formerly Twitter), which she used to demonstrate her belief in the justice of the Palestinian cause and to defend prisoners of conscience, has the following phrase and hashtags in its header:

Life is belief and struggle.

#Quds_is_ Arabic

#Stop_Killing_Women

#Freedom_for_prisoners_of_opinion

The pinned tweet, which she published on 30 August 2019, said, “I reject injustice, and support the oppressed…. Freedom for prisoners of conscience and for all the oppressed in the world.”

On 20 December 2020, she tweeted, “Freedom for the inmates of patriarchy, shame on the jailer!”

Al-Shehab, a 34-year-old mother of two children, is a specialist in oral and human health. She was studying for a PhD at the University of Leeds in Britain in her field of specialisation, and she previously obtained a master’s degree from King Saud University in Riyadh.

GCHR strongly condemns the arbitrary arrest and unlawful sentencing of Al-Shehab, which marks a further escalation in the crackdown on free speech in Saudi Arabia, and calls for her release.

Recommendations:

A) GCHR calls on the Saudi government to:

• Immediately and unconditionally release Salma Al-Shehab and drop all trumped-up charges against her.

B) GCHR calls on the United Nations, the European Union, and both the governments of the United Kingdom and the United to States to:

• Help to immediately and unconditionally free Salma Al-Shehab by putting serious pressure on the Saudi government.

C) Act now!

• Please tweet calling for the immediate and unconditional release of women’s rights defender and academic Salma Al-Shehab, tagging the Saudi King: @KingSalman with the hashtag: #FreeSalma

• ALQST for Human Rights is also asking people to sign the petition on change.org and to post photos of themselves on social media holding a sign saying with the hashtag: #FreeSalma

Contact Information:   

1. United Nations Special Rapporteurs: @UN_SPExperts

Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders @MaryLawlorhrds

Clement Voule, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Assembly and Association @cvoule

Ben Saul, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism @profbensaul

Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression @Irenekhan

2. European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights @EP_HumanRights
3. US State Dept @StateDept
4. UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office@FCDOGovUK
5. University of Leeds @UniversityLeeds
6. Please also contact your country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or your country’s embassy or consulate in the UAE. Check out the list here and then find it on X.