A Saudi student at Leeds University, Salma al-Shebab, 34, who was said to be returning to the kingdom for a holiday when she was arrested has been sentenced to 34 years for using a Twitter account and for following and retweeting dissident activists.
The mother of two was accused of using Twitter to ’cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security after she posted tweets calling for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, The Daily Mail reports.
Al-Shebab, who has two young sons aged four and six, was earlier sentenced to six years in prison but a Saudi terrorism court, Monday, increased her jail term to 34 years after the activist appealed her sentence.
She is said to also be facing a 34-year travel ban upon expiration of her jail term.
Al-Shebab was said to have been arrested in January 2021 while on holiday in Saudi Arabia, as she planned to return to the United Kingdom, where she was a PhD student at the University of Leeds.
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It was gathered that in delivering judgement, the court cited Al-Shebab’s social media activity where she tweeted in support of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia and expressed solidarity with imprisoned women’s rights activists such as Loujain al-Hathloul and subsequently called for their freedom.
She was said to have been arrested after she retweeted a post from Al-Hathloul’s sister, Lina.
She was accused of ‘providing succour to those seeking to disrupt public order and undermine the safety of the general public and stability of the state, and publishing false and tendentious rumours on Twitter‘.
