The Saudi Arabian authorities have sentenced another woman to decades in prison, weeks after they detained a university student and gave her a 34-year sentence for using Twitter.
Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani was reportedly given a 45-year prison term for using the internet to undermine the ‘social fabric’ of the nation, according to Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), a human rights organisation founded by allegedly slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
However, other than the length of her sentence, little is known about Saeed’s age or the specifics of her arrest. Saeed was detained, according to Guardian, which obtained the Dawn story, for tweeting her opinions—and doing so from an anonymous account.
Salma al-Shehab, a 34-year-old PhD candidate at Leeds University in the UK, was sentenced to 34 years in prison by the nation’s court for using Twitter and reportedly retweeting comments from opposition figures.
Salma was charged with ‘public unrest’ and ‘destabilising civil and national security,’ similar to Saeed.
Salma reportedly travelled back to Saudi Arabia for a vacation, but the Saudi authorities apprehended her and brought her in front of a special court for terrorist cases, which delivered the harsh judgement.
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