UK student Salma al-Shehab expected to be released from Saudi prison ‘within days’

Rights groups say they expect Salma al-Shehab, a Leeds University doctoral candidate who was handed down a decades-long sentence for her tweets in 2022, to be released from a Saudi prison “within the next few days”.

In an open letter published on Wednesday, the organisations said they welcomed the recent decision by a Saudi court to reduce Shehab’s sentence from 27 years to four years, with a four year suspension, calling it a “significant step to correct a gross miscarriage of justice”.

“We expect al-Shehab to be released within the next few days, and urge the Saudi authorities to ensure she is granted full freedom, including the right to travel to complete her PhD studies at the University of Leeds in the UK,” the organisations, including the UK-based Alqst and Geneva-based MENA Rights Group, wrote.

They said they remained “deeply concerned” about the prolonged ordeal she had endured, saying that her health had deteriorated in prison and noting her 2023 hunger strike with other women in protest against their imprisonment.

The 36-year-old women’s rights activist and mother of two was arrested in January 2021 in the kingdom’s Eastern Province during a family holiday and was subjected to nearly 10 months in solitary confinement and lengthy interrogation before she was brought to trial, the groups said.

She was convicted in March 2022 for following and retweeting dissidents and activists on X, and was originally sentenced to six years.

But her sentence was drastically increased that August to 34 years in prison, plus a 34-year travel ban, which the groups said is one of the longest sentences ever imposed on an peaceful activist exercising their freedom of expression in the kingdom.

In January 2023, her sentence was reduced to 27 years. On Wednesday, the groups shared for the first time publicly that Shehab was resentenced to four years, with a four year suspension, during a retrial in September 2024.

They wrote: “This huge discrepancy between sentences handed down at different stages in the case underscores the need for systemic reform of the Saudi judicial system to ensure fair trials and consistent sentencing and to protect human rights.”

Why now?

It was not immediately clear why Shehab’s sentence had been reduced in September and why the groups expected her release imminently.

Last week, two Saudi human rights defenders – Mohammed al-Qahtani and Essa al-Nukheifi – were conditionally released from prison after what Alqst said were years of arbitrary imprisonment as a result of their peaceful activism, although they both continue to face travel bans which prevent them from leaving Saudi Arabia.

Shehab’s drastic sentencing over her social media activity was the first public case of what has become a trend in the kingdom over the past few years. 

A week after Shehab’s 34-year sentence, Nourah al-Qahtani, a mother of five, was sentenced to 45 years in prison, and a travel ban of the same length, over tweets from an anonymous account. 

Saad Almadi, a dual Saudi-American citizen, was sentenced to 16 years in October 2022 over his tweets which was then increased to 19 years by an appeals court before his release in March 2023. He remains in the kingdom on a travel ban.

In November 2022, Abdullah Jelan, a university graduate who dreamed of becoming a health educator for the Saudi government, was handed 10 years in prison, plus a 10-year travel ban, over anonymous tweets which largely focused on unemployment.

In May 2023, Fatima al-Shwarbi was given a 30-year sentence for anonymously tweeting about political prisoners, women’s rights and unemployment.

Last January, Saudi activist and fitness instructor Manahel al-Otaibi was sentenced to 11 years for promoting women’s rights on social media.