A Saudi terrorism court has sentenced another Saudi woman to several decades in prison, after convicting her of using social media to “violate public order,” according to court documents seen by a rights group.
Noura bint Saeed Al-Qahtani was sentenced to 45 years in prison, after a specialized criminal court convicted her of “using the Internet to tear the social fabric.” [السعودي]according to documents obtained and reviewed by Democracy Now for the Arab World, an organization founded by the late journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“Democracy Now for the Arab World,” which stands for “DAWN” for the acronym, showed the Guardian the documents, noting that Saudi sources had verified them.
Little information is known about al-Qahtani, including her age, the circumstances of her detention, and the reasons for her conviction.
But her prison sentence comes weeks after Salma Al-Shehab, a 34-year-old Saudi PhD student at the University of Leeds, a mother of two, was sentenced to 34 years in prison after returning home for vacation.
Court documents in Al-Shehab’s case revealed that she was convicted of an alleged crime related to following Twitter accounts of individuals who “caused public disturbances and disturbed civil and national security.”
In some cases, it retweeted tweets posted by exiled dissidents.
Al-Shehab told a Saudi court that she was subjected to ill-treatment and harassment while in detention, including being interrogated after she was given stressful medications.
Abdullah Al-Odah, director of the Gulf region at DAWN, said that in Qahtani’s case, it appears that the Saudi authorities imprisoned her “just for tweeting her views.”
He added, “It is impossible not to link between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s meeting with President (American Joe) Biden last month in Jeddah, and the escalation of repressive attacks against anyone who dares to criticize the Crown Prince or the Saudi government…”
He pointed out that his organization revealed the details of the ruling in the hope that people who know Al-Qahtani will shed light on her case.
Saudi laws give the authorities maximum discretion in detaining individuals in connection with vague counterterrorism laws, such as “disturbing public order” and “endangering national unity.”
According to the Guardian, an account in the name of al-Qahtani does not appear on Twitter, while other Saudis who are believed to have used pseudonyms to spread satirical or critical content on the same platform have been arrested.
Twitter has not publicly commented on the shooting star case.
On Monday, the US State Department said it had expressed its “great concerns” to the Saudi authorities about the Al-Shehab case.
“We have made clear that freedom of expression is a universal human right that all people deserve, and the exercise of those universal rights should never be criminalized,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
Price added that the State Department is following the issue “closely” and that the United States has had “a number” of conversations with Saudi officials in recent days.
The Saudi government could not be reached for comment, the Guardian reported.