Saudi Woman Sentenced To 45 Years In Prison For Using Social Media Group Says Saudi Arabia

Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani was sentenced to 45 years in prison after a specialized criminal court convicted her of “using the Internet to tear [Saudi Arabia’s] social fabric,” according to documents obtained and reviewed by Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), an organization founded by Jamal Khashoggi. Dawn shared its findings, which it said were verified by Saudi sources, with the Guardian. Few details are known about Qahtani, including her age or the circumstances surrounding her arrest and conviction. However, news of her multi-year sentence comes weeks after Salma al-Shehab, a 34-year-old PhD student at Leeds University and mother of two, was sentenced to 34 years in prison after returning home to Saudi Arabia for a break. holidays. Court documents in the Shehab case revealed that he had been convicted of the alleged crime of monitoring the Twitter accounts of people who “cause public unrest and destabilize politics and national security”. In some cases, he retweeted posts by dissidents in exile. Shehab told a Saudi court that she faced abuse and harassment during her detention, including being interrogated after being given drugs that exhausted her. In Qahtani’s case, Saudi authorities appear to have jailed her for “simply tweeting her views,” said Abdullah Alaoudh, Gulf region director at Dawn. “It’s impossible not to connect the dots between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s meeting with President Biden last month in Jeddah and the rise in crackdowns against anyone who dares to criticize the crown prince or the Saudi government for well-documented abuses.” , Alaoudh. he said. Dawn was presenting the news, she said, in the hope that people who know Qahtani might shed light on her case. Saudi Arabia’s laws are designed to give authorities maximum discretion, including the power to detain people for vaguely defined anti-terror laws such as “disturbance of public order” and “threat to national unity.” Qahtani does not appear to have had a Twitter account under her name. Other Saudis believed to have used pseudonyms to post satirical or critical content on Twitter faced detention and arrest. Twitter has not publicly commented on Shehab’s case. The US State Department said on Monday it had raised “significant concerns” with Saudi authorities about Shehab’s case. “We have pointed out to them that freedom of expression is a universal human right to which all people are entitled and that the exercise of these universal rights should never be criminalised,” said spokesman Ned Price. Pressed by reporters on the issue, Price said the State Department was following the case “very closely” and that the US had “several” conversations with their Saudi counterparts in recent days. The Saudi government was not immediately available for comment.

title: “Saudi Woman Sentenced To 45 Years In Prison For Using Social Media Group Says Saudi Arabia Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-11” author: “Mary Fahey”

Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani was sentenced to 45 years in prison after a specialized criminal court convicted her of “using the Internet to tear [Saudi Arabia’s] social fabric,” according to documents obtained and reviewed by Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), an organization founded by Jamal Khashoggi. Dawn shared its findings, which it said were verified by Saudi sources, with the Guardian. Few details are known about Qahtani, including her age or the circumstances surrounding her arrest and conviction. However, news of her multi-year sentence comes weeks after Salma al-Shehab, a 34-year-old PhD student at Leeds University and mother of two, was sentenced to 34 years in prison after returning home to Saudi Arabia for a break. holidays. Court documents in the Shehab case revealed that he had been convicted of the alleged crime of monitoring the Twitter accounts of people who “cause public unrest and destabilize politics and national security”. In some cases, he retweeted posts by dissidents in exile. Shehab told a Saudi court that she faced abuse and harassment during her detention, including being interrogated after being given drugs that exhausted her. In Qahtani’s case, Saudi authorities appear to have jailed her for “simply tweeting her views,” said Abdullah Alaoudh, Gulf region director at Dawn. “It’s impossible not to connect the dots between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s meeting with President Biden last month in Jeddah and the rise in crackdowns against anyone who dares to criticize the crown prince or the Saudi government for well-documented abuses.” , Alaoudh. he said. Dawn was presenting the news, she said, in the hope that people who know Qahtani might shed light on her case. Saudi Arabia’s laws are designed to give authorities maximum discretion, including the power to detain people for vaguely defined anti-terror laws such as “disturbance of public order” and “threat to national unity.” Qahtani does not appear to have had a Twitter account under her name. Other Saudis believed to have used pseudonyms to post satirical or critical content on Twitter faced detention and arrest. Twitter has not publicly commented on Shehab’s case. The US State Department said on Monday it had raised “significant concerns” with Saudi authorities about Shehab’s case. “We have pointed out to them that freedom of expression is a universal human right to which all people are entitled and that the exercise of these universal rights should never be criminalised,” said spokesman Ned Price. Pressed by reporters on the issue, Price said the State Department was following the case “very closely” and that the US had “several” conversations with their Saudi counterparts in recent days. The Saudi government was not immediately available for comment.

title: “Saudi Woman Sentenced To 45 Years In Prison For Using Social Media Group Says Saudi Arabia Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-26” author: “Anita Dietrich”

Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani was sentenced to 45 years in prison after a specialized criminal court convicted her of “using the Internet to tear [Saudi Arabia’s] social fabric,” according to documents obtained and reviewed by Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), an organization founded by Jamal Khashoggi. Dawn shared its findings, which it said were verified by Saudi sources, with the Guardian. Few details are known about Qahtani, including her age or the circumstances surrounding her arrest and conviction. However, news of her multi-year sentence comes weeks after Salma al-Shehab, a 34-year-old PhD student at Leeds University and mother of two, was sentenced to 34 years in prison after returning home to Saudi Arabia for a break. holidays. Court documents in the Shehab case revealed that he had been convicted of the alleged crime of monitoring the Twitter accounts of people who “cause public unrest and destabilize politics and national security”. In some cases, he retweeted posts by dissidents in exile. Shehab told a Saudi court that she faced abuse and harassment during her detention, including being interrogated after being given drugs that exhausted her. In Qahtani’s case, Saudi authorities appear to have jailed her for “simply tweeting her views,” said Abdullah Alaoudh, Gulf region director at Dawn. “It’s impossible not to connect the dots between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s meeting with President Biden last month in Jeddah and the rise in crackdowns against anyone who dares to criticize the crown prince or the Saudi government for well-documented abuses.” , Alaoudh. he said. Dawn was presenting the news, she said, in the hope that people who know Qahtani might shed light on her case. Saudi Arabia’s laws are designed to give authorities maximum discretion, including the power to detain people for vaguely defined anti-terror laws such as “disturbance of public order” and “threat to national unity.” Qahtani does not appear to have had a Twitter account under her name. Other Saudis believed to have used pseudonyms to post satirical or critical content on Twitter faced detention and arrest. Twitter has not publicly commented on Shehab’s case. The US State Department said on Monday it had raised “significant concerns” with Saudi authorities about Shehab’s case. “We have pointed out to them that freedom of expression is a universal human right to which all people are entitled and that the exercise of these universal rights should never be criminalised,” said spokesman Ned Price. Pressed by reporters on the issue, Price said the State Department was following the case “very closely” and that the US had “several” conversations with their Saudi counterparts in recent days. The Saudi government was not immediately available for comment.

title: “Saudi Woman Sentenced To 45 Years In Prison For Using Social Media Group Says Saudi Arabia Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-06” author: “Juan Kaufman”

Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani was sentenced to 45 years in prison after a specialized criminal court convicted her of “using the Internet to tear [Saudi Arabia’s] social fabric,” according to documents obtained and reviewed by Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), an organization founded by Jamal Khashoggi. Dawn shared its findings, which it said were verified by Saudi sources, with the Guardian. Few details are known about Qahtani, including her age or the circumstances surrounding her arrest and conviction. However, news of her multi-year sentence comes weeks after Salma al-Shehab, a 34-year-old PhD student at Leeds University and mother of two, was sentenced to 34 years in prison after returning home to Saudi Arabia for a break. holidays. Court documents in the Shehab case revealed that he had been convicted of the alleged crime of monitoring the Twitter accounts of people who “cause public unrest and destabilize politics and national security”. In some cases, he retweeted posts by dissidents in exile. Shehab told a Saudi court that she faced abuse and harassment during her detention, including being interrogated after being given drugs that exhausted her. In Qahtani’s case, Saudi authorities appear to have jailed her for “simply tweeting her views,” said Abdullah Alaoudh, Gulf region director at Dawn. “It’s impossible not to connect the dots between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s meeting with President Biden last month in Jeddah and the rise in crackdowns against anyone who dares to criticize the crown prince or the Saudi government for well-documented abuses.” , Alaoudh. he said. Dawn was presenting the news, she said, in the hope that people who know Qahtani might shed light on her case. Saudi Arabia’s laws are designed to give authorities maximum discretion, including the power to detain people for vaguely defined anti-terror laws such as “disturbance of public order” and “threat to national unity.” Qahtani does not appear to have had a Twitter account under her name. Other Saudis believed to have used pseudonyms to post satirical or critical content on Twitter faced detention and arrest. Twitter has not publicly commented on Shehab’s case. The US State Department said on Monday it had raised “significant concerns” with Saudi authorities about Shehab’s case. “We have pointed out to them that freedom of expression is a universal human right to which all people are entitled and that the exercise of these universal rights should never be criminalised,” said spokesman Ned Price. Pressed by reporters on the issue, Price said the State Department was following the case “very closely” and that the US had “several” conversations with their Saudi counterparts in recent days. The Saudi government was not immediately available for comment.