Salma al-Shehab, a Leeds University PhD student and mother of two was arrested in January 2021

‘For more than four years she has been subjected to one gross injustice after another’ - Dana Ahmed

Responding to the release of Salma al-Shehab, a Saudi Arabian woman who has spent more than four years imprisoned on terrorism-related charges for posting tweets in support of women’s rights, Dana Ahmed, Amnesty International’s Middle East Researcher, said:

“Salma al-Shehab’s ordeal in prison is finally over. For more than four years she has been subjected to one gross injustice after another including at one point being handed an egregious 34-year prison sentence for her social media posts.

“Salma spent almost 300 days in prolonged solitary confinement, was denied legal representation, and was then repeatedly convicted on terrorism charges and handed a decades-long sentence. All because she tweeted in support of women’s rights. Saudi Arabia’s authorities must now ensure she is not subjected to a travel ban or any further punitive measures.

“While today is a day to celebrate Salma’s release, it’s also an opportunity to reflect on the many others serving similarly lengthy sentences in Saudi Arabia for their activities online. This includes other women such as such as Manahel al-Otaibi, and Noura al-Qahtani, jailed for speaking out for women’s rights and Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, jailed for 20 years for satirical tweets. We urge the Saudi authorities to immediately release them and end their relentless crackdown on the right to freedom of expression once and for all.

“Salma’s release would not have been possible without the tireless campaigning of human rights activists around the world.”

Leeds uni student

Salma al-Shehab, 36, a Leeds University PhD student and mother of two was arrested on 15 January 2021 for tweeting and retweeting Saudi women’s rights activists on Twitter. Based on these tweets, she was charged, amongst other things, with “disturb[ing] public order, [and] destabilis[ing] the security of society and the stability of the state.”

In March 2022, the Specialised Criminal Court (SCC) sentenced Salma al-Shehab to six years in prison. At her appeal trial in August 2022, the prosecution demanded a harsher punishment, and the SCC drastically increased her prison sentence to 34 years. Salma appealed that judgement and in January 2023 the Supreme Court referred her case back to the SCC’s appeals chamber. The court reduced her sentence to 27 years’ imprisonment. In September 2024, after the Supreme Court sent her case back to the SCC’s appeals chamber again, her prison sentence was reduced from 27 years to four years in prison with an additional four years suspended. Her four-year prison term ended in December 2024, and she was subsequently released this month.

For more information on her case, see here.