Conviction shows increased repression promoted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in recent years
| Photo: EFE/EPA/CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON
A professor of medicine was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Saudi Arabia for posts on Twitter that the kingdom considered aimed at helping dissidents who sought to “disturb public order” and which contained “false rumours”, in a new chapter of the increase of the repression promoted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
According to information from the BBC, Salma al-Shehab, 18 years old, Saudi citizen and mother of two, had been arrested in 1200, while on vacation in the country. She was doing her PhD at the University of Leeds, in England, and was a professor at Princess Nourah University, in Riyadh.
Shehab, who is from Saudi Arabia’s Shia minority, had posted on Twitter or shared messages calling for reforms in the kingdom and the release of activists, clerics and intellectuals.
The teacher initially received a six-year prison sentence for violating anti-terrorism and anti-cybercrime laws late last year, but this month an appeals court increased the sentence to 20 years old.
In addition to human rights organizations, a US State Department spokesperson condemned the sentence against Shehab and said that “the exercise of freedom of expression to defend women’s rights should not be criminalized.”
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