Leeds student jailed in Saudi Arabia for 34 years over tweets is released
A Saudi student at Leeds University who was
sentenced to 34 years in prison
over her use of Twitter, now X, has been released after her sentence was dramatically reduced.Salma al-Shehab, a mother of two who was arrested in 2021 during a holiday in Saudi Arabia, was convicted in 2022 over her tweets.
The London-based Saudi rights group ALQST announced her release on Monday. In January, ALQST and other groups said al-Shehab’s sentence had been reduced to four years in prison, with an additional four years suspended.
“Her full freedom must now be granted, including the right to travel to complete her studies,” the group said.
Saudi Arabia did not immediately acknowledge her release, and Saudi officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
Al-Shehab was detained during a family holiday on 15 January 2021, days before she planned to return to the UK. She is a member of Saudi Arabia’s Shia Muslim minority, which has long complained of systemic discrimination in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.
She was initially sentenced to serve 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 later 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.
The additional charges included 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 retweeting their tweets.