A Saudi court Monday handed prominent activist Loujain al-Hathloul a prison term of five years and eight months for terrorism-related crimes, but a partially suspended sentence will allow her release within months, relatives said.
Hathloul, 31, was arrested in May 2018 with about a dozen other women activists just weeks before the historic lifting of a decades-long ban on female drivers, a reform they had long campaigned for, sparking a torrent of international criticism.
A suspension of half her sentence follows intense global pressure for her release and comes ahead of next month’s inauguration of US President-elect Joe Biden, who has pledged a tough stance on the kingdom over human rights after it largely got a free pass under President Donald Trump.
The terrorism court handed Hathloul a prison term of five years and eight months, but suspended two years and 10 months of the sentence “if she does not commit any crime” within the next three years, the pro-government online outlet Sabq and other media allowed to attend her trial cited the court as saying.
The women’s rights activist was convicted of cooperating with entities criminalized by the kingdom’s anti-terrorism law, inciting regime change and seeking to disrupt public order, they added.
“A suspension of 2 years and 10 months in addition to the time already served (since May 2018) would see her (released) in approximately two months,” Lina al-Hathloul, the activist’s sister, wrote on Twitter.
A source close to her family and campaign groups including the London-based ALQST said she would be released by March next year.
Another detained woman activist, Maya’a al-Zahrani, was given an identical sentence for a similar list of charges, local media reported, but it was unclear when she will be set free.
The court banned Hathloul from leaving the kingdom for five years, her relatives said.
This verdict was a “face-saving exit strategy” for the Saudi government after it came under severe international pressure for her release, the source close to Hathloul’s family told AFP.
The activist’s Toronto-based brother, Walid, denounced her trial as a “sham” and “politically motivated”.
“The moment (Hathloul) saw the verdict she started crying because… she had been labelled as a terrorist,” Walid told AFP.❐
