Salma al-Shihab spoke out on Twitter against the oppression of women in Saudi Arabia and was sentenced to a very long prison term. The UN human rights office is shocked.
The UN human rights office in Geneva has sentenced a woman in Saudi Arabia to 34 years in prison for her activities on the short message service Twitter. “We are appalled,” said spokeswoman Liz Throssell in Geneva. The office called on the Saudi authorities to immediately release Salma al-Shihab unconditionally and to overturn the sentence.
The mother of two, al-Shihab, was actually working on her doctoral thesis in London. During a home visit, she was arrested in 2021. The court convicted her, among other things, for speaking out on Twitter against the oppression of women. Among other things, she called for “freedom for the prisoners of the patriarchy” in a tweet in 2020. Throssell said the case shows that authorities are abusing terrorism and cybercrime laws to intimidate and retaliate against dissidents.
Meanwhile, in Interlaken, around 60 kilometers south-east of Bern, the freethinker movement won the right to put up posters calling on Saudi tourists to stand up for the Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, who has been banned from travelling.
Because there are traditionally many tourists from Saudi Arabia in Interlaken in the summer, the freethinker movement wanted to put up posters in the city. In Arabic, English and German it says: “Nice, you can enjoy your freedom to travel. Please work at home to ensure that Raif Badawi can do that again.”
The blogger was released from prison in March after ten years in prison and public flogging. But he is not allowed to leave the country. The municipality initially prohibited the poster campaign. The city “does not want to be a platform for conflicts in the world,” as mayor Philippe Ritschard told the dpa. After complaints from freethinkers and legal advice, the municipal council withdrew its decision. The poster campaign is covered by the freedom of opinion and expression.
Source: Stern
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