Another woman sentenced to 45-year jail term in Saudi Arabia for using Twitter
Saeed was arrested for tweeting her opinions and that too from an anonymous account
Weeks after arresting a university student and sentencing her to a 34-year prison term for using Twitter, the Saudi Arabian authorities have sentenced another woman to decades in prison.
Reportedly, Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), a human rights group founded by 'murdered' journalist Jamal Khashoggi has revealed that a woman named Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani has been sentenced to 45 years in prison for using the internet to tear into the 'social fabric' of the country.
However, apart from the jail term, not much is known about Saeed's age or the concrete reason why she was arrested. According to Guardian, which received the Dawn report, Saeed was arrested for tweeting her opinions and that too from an anonymous account.
A similar playbook was used earlier
As reported extensively by WION, Salma al-Shehab, a 34-year-old PhD student studying at Leeds University in the UK was sentenced to 34 years in prison by the country's court for using Twitter and allegedly retweeting tweets from dissidents.
Akin to Saeed, Salma was accused of causing "public unrest" and "destabilising civil and national security". Reportedly, Salma had returned to Saudi Arabia for a holiday but the Saudi authorities got hold of her and produced her in front of a special terrorist court which announced the draconian verdict.
Abdullah Alaoudh, the director for the Gulf region at Dawn, who accessed the court documents which revealed Saeed's case stated that the slew of arrests could be connected to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s meeting with President Biden last month.
“It is impossible not to connect the dots between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s meeting with President Biden last month in Jeddah and the uptick in the repressive attacks against anyone who dares criticise the crown prince or the Saudi government for well-documented abuses.” Alaoudh was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
It is pertinent to note that Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) controls a major stake in Twitter. Moreover, earlier this month, a US court found an ex-Twitter employee guilty of spying for Saudi officials. Ahmad Abouammo reportedly sold Twitter user information for cash.
(With inputs from Agencies)
WATCH WION LIVE HERE: