Saudi human rights activist with the organization ALQST, Lina al-Athloul discusses the 34-year prison sentence of Salma al-Chehab, arrested and tried for having signed tweets in support of women’s rights and political prisoners in the kingdom. Lina al-Athloul is the sister of Loujain al-Athloul, who spent nearly three years in prison and remains under a ban on leaving Saudi Arabia.
RFI : Who is Salma al-Chehab who has just been found guilty of having “provided assistance to those who seek to disturb public order and spread false and malicious information” according to court documents cited by AFP ?
Lina al-Athlul: She is a young Saudi woman who was finishing her doctorate in the United Kingdom. On her Twitter account, she defended women’s rights, she expressed her support for political prisoners (including my sister Loujain al-Athloul). In 2021, she returned to Saudi Arabia for a vacation and that’s when she was arrested. She spent several months in solitary confinement and has just been sentenced to 34 years in prison.
Salma al-Chehab was initially sentenced to six years in prison, half of which was suspended. His sentence was therefore considerably increased. What do you know of the conditions of detention of this thirty-year-old mother of two children?
It is very difficult to get information, there is no transparency. She was placed in solitary confinement for several months, which is a form of torture.
This condemnation comes in a particular context. In recent weeks, Crown Prince Mohammed ben Salman met US President Joe Biden and was received in Paris by Emmanuel Macron. Mohammed ben Salman seems to have become popular again, less than four years after the assassination of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi…
We warned the international community that the rehabilitation of Mohammad bin Salman would pave the way for more repression. We saw it as soon as Boris Johnson visited Saudi Arabia [en mars] : at the same period, 81 people were executed in a single day. Today, we see that the visits of Joe Biden to the kingdom and of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to France are followed by this 34-year prison sentence for an activist who simply tweeted in solidarity with other activists. We call on the international community to take a public stand and press for the release of Salma al-Chehab and all other prisoners of conscience.
Salma al-Chehab’s case is similar to that of other Saudi activists who have been imprisoned in recent years, including your sister, Loujain al-Athloul, released in 2021…
My sister Loujain is still under a ban on leaving Saudi territory. My whole family too. They live in constant fear, especially when there are new arrests or convictions. Loujain lives under surveillance: his phone has been infected with Pegasus spyware. She is no longer in prison, but in what one might call ” a bigger prison “.
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