Saudi Woman Sentenced to 45 Years in Jail Over Her Social Media Reports

A woman in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to 45 years in jail over her social media posts, reported to be the second such case in a matter of weeks, according to a human rights organization. Nourah al-Qahtani was sentenced in the last week, following an appeal, by the Saudi Specialized Criminal Court on charges of “using the internet to tear the social fabric” of the country and “violating public order by using social media,” the Washington-based Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) said in a statement, citing court documents. Little is known about Qahtani, except that she was arrested in July 2021, according to DAWN, which also does not know what was contained in the social media posts. She was convicted under the kingdom’s Counter-Terrorism and Anti-Cyber Crime Law. Salma al-Shehab, a mother of two studying at the University of Leeds, also received a 34-year jail term and 34-year travel ban on appeal this month, for aiding dissidents seeking to “disrupt public order” by retweeting their posts. She was arrested when she returned to Saudi Arabia for a visit. DAWN was founded in 2018 by Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi just months before he was killed at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul; he believed that “promoting democracy and human rights in the Arab world is not only an ethical imperative, but a winning long-term strategy,” and that “changing policies in Washington, DC is critical to changing policies in the region,” according to the group’s website.