Alwaght- Despotic Saudi regime has sentenced a woman to 45 years in prison for social media posts, in the latest example of the West-backed kingdom's crackdown on activists and opposition.
Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani was convicted "likely within last week" by the Saudi Specialized Criminal Court on charges of "using the internet to tear the (Saudi) social fabric" and "violating public order by using social media", Washington-based DAWN organization said in a statement, citing court documents.
DAWN said little was known about Qahtani or what her social media posts said, and that it was continuing to investigate her case.
Qahtani's conviction came a few weeks after Salma al-Shehab, a mother of two and doctoral candidate at the University of Leeds in Britain, was sentenced to 35 years in jail for following and retweeting dissidents and activists on Twitter.
The Qahtani and Shehab cases underscored a crackdown on dissent driven by Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto Saudi ruler, who has tried to pretend himself as a reformer.
Abdullah al-Aoudh, Director of Research for the Gulf Region at DAWN, said that in both the Shebab and Qahtani cases, Saudi authorities used "abusive" laws to target and punish Saudi citizens for criticizing the regime on Twitter.
"But this is only half the story because even the crown prince would not allow such vindictive and excessive sentences if he felt that these actions would be met by meaningful censure by the United States and other Western governments. Clearly, they are not," Aoudh said in DAWN's statement.
Tensions over oil-rich Saudi Arabia's human rights record have strained its ties with the United States, including over women's rights and the 2018 murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
