London – A Saudi woman studying for a doctorate in the United Kingdom was sentenced to 34 years in prison in Saudi Arabia for her posts on Twitter, causing protests in the world’s leading human rights organizations.
Salma al-Shehab, 34, a PhD student at the University of Leeds in England, went on vacation to her country in January 2021. civil and national security”
The Guardian newspaper, which uncovered the story and had access to criminal documents, also revealed Twitter’s ties to the Saudi kingdom, which owns stakes in the platform through sovereign wealth fund PFI.
Journalist Sentenced for Using Twitter Two Weeks After Biden Visit
Salma al-Shehab was initially sentenced to three years in prison, but an appeals court on Monday revised the sentence to 34 years, one of the most severe known for similar crimes.
The conviction comes two weeks after US President Joe Biden’s criticized visit to Saudi Arabia, where he was received by the crown prince. Mohammed bin Salman.
The country was responsible for one of the most notorious crimes against journalists, the killing of Saudi Jamal Khashoggi at his country’s embassy in Istanbul in 2018. Three years later, Turkey sent the case to Riyadh for trial.
But unlike her compatriot, a prominent Washington Post columnist who has often condemned her country’s violations to the world, Salma al-Shehab is a healthcare professional who doesn’t even have more than 2,000 followers on Twitter and 200 on Instagram.
He is a convicted oral and dental specialist, a doctoral student at the University of Leeds, and a professor at Princess Nourah University, according to the Berlin-based European Saudi Human Rights Organization (ESOHR). He is married and has two small children.
The organization’s statement says that appeals court judges appealed to the counter-terrorism regime and its funding to justify the decision, but all the charges against him were related to Twitter activity.
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The Guardian has accessed court documents alleging Shehab “aided those who sought to cause public unrest and destabilize civil and national security by following her Twitter accounts” and retweeted posts about women’s rights.
One of the reasons the Saudi government is angry may be the support for the feminist activist. The British newspaper drew attention to the travel ban of Loujain al-Hathloul, who has already been arrested and is currently in the country.
“We urge the Saudi authorities to release Salma, to allow the children to return to her care and to safely complete her education in the UK,” Freedom Initiative said in a statement. Said. “Titting in solidarity with women’s rights activists is not a crime.”
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom said it believes Shehab’s religious identity, who is a Shia Muslim, contributed to her arrest and the severity of her sentence.
Twitter’s relations with Saudi Arabia
In the report revealing the story of the conviction, The Guardian revealed a little-known aspect of Twitter: key stakes in the kingdom led by Mohammed bin Salman, a prominent oppressor of free speech, and who may have ordered his death. Khashoggi.
Saudi Arabia ranks 166th on Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index, which lists 180 countries.
The analysis highlights that “almost all Saudi media operate under direct official control.” And the penal code and anti-terrorism and cybercrime laws allow journalists who risk criticizing the government to be arrested for blasphemy and incitement to chaos.
The organization also claims that since 2018, the government has tightened its control over social media.
A recent example was an Egyptian woman who posted a video on TikTok that allegedly implied it was deemed offensive. LGBTI.
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Paradoxically, the same field that represses those who use social networks to express themselves is investing in them.
According to The Guardian, youOne of Twitter’s biggest investors is Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who owns more than 5% of Twitter through his investment firm Kingdom Holdings.
Last May, Kingdom Holding announced the sale of 17% of control to the sovereign wealth fund headed by bin Salman, making the Saudi government a major indirect investor on Twitter.
The Guardian said Twitter did not comment on the lawsuit or report on shareholder influence on the social media company’s operations, as it has not done in any other lawsuits recently.
Twitter has kept a verified account of Bader al-Asaker, an adviser to Prince Mohammed, with more than 2 million followers active, despite accusations that the US government conducted an operation to identify platform users who were later arrested by the government. Saudi
Last week, former Twitter employee Ahmad Abouammo, a dual Lebanese-American citizen, was convicted by a California court for acting as an unregistered agent of the Saudi government.
Saudi Arabia is also tightening its control over the cultural industry. The country was one of the countries that suspended the screening of Pixar’s new animation Lightyear. The reason was a kiss between the female characters.
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source: Noticias
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