Tue 29 December 2020:

The family of prominent human rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul will appeal her prison sentence but expressed little hope in the Saudi judicial system, calling the trial a “sham” and “politically motivated”.

On Monday, a Saudi court sentenced al-Hathloul to five years and eight months in prison on terrorism-related charges and banned her from leaving the country for five years, sparking a torrent of international criticism.

“The moment [al-Hathloul] saw the verdict, she started crying because… she had been labelled as a terrorist,” her brother Walid al-Hathloul told AFP news agency.

“We are going to be appealing the verdict even though [we] don’t have any hope from the Saudi judicial system.”

Loujain cried when she heard the sentence today. After nearly 3 years of arbitrary detention, torture, solitary confinement – they now sentence her and label her a terrorist. Loujain will appeal the sentence and ask for another investigation regarding torture #FreeLoujain https://t.co/E4msesGqjH

— Lina Alhathloul لينا الهذلول (@LinaAlhathloul) December 28, 2020

Earlier this month, the kingdom’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan told AFP that Hathloul was accused of contacting “unfriendly” states and providing classified information, but her family said no evidence to support the allegations had been put forward.

While some detained women activists were provisionally released, al-Hathloul and others remained imprisoned on what rights groups describe as opaque charges.

Pro-government Saudi media branded them as “traitors” and al-Hathloul’s family alleges she experienced sexual harassment and torture in detention.

The Saudi court recently dismissed those allegations.

UN calls for early release of Saudi activist Al-Hathloul

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)yesterdaycalled for the “early release” of female Saudi activist Loujain Al-Hathloul.

In a tweet, the OHCHR said it considered Al-Hathloul’s conviction and imprisonment of five years and eight months “deeply troubling”.

The UN body said that the conviction and sentence of prominent human rights activist Al-Hathloul to five years and eight months in prison, while she has been arbitrarily detained for two years and a half, is deeply concerning.

#SaudiArabia: Conviction and 5yrs 8 month sentence handed down to prominent women’s rights campaigner #LoujainAlHathloul, already arbitrarily detained for 2 ½ years, is also deeply troubling. We understand early release is possible, and strongly encourage it as matter of urgency.

— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) December 28, 2020

The OHCHRcontinued: “We understand that early release is possible and encourage it as a matter of urgency.”

There was no immediate comment from Riyadh on the UN’s call.

Earlier yesterday, a Saudi court sentenced human rights activist Al-Hathloul to jail after charging her with seeking to change the Saudi political system and harming national security, local media said. The court suspended two years and ten months of her sentence, or time served since Hathloul was arrested on 15 May 2018, the Sabq and Asharq Al-Awsat newspapers said.

Al-Hathloul was arrested along with about a dozen other female activists just weeks before Saudi Arabia lifted a decades-old ban on female drivers. She went on a hunger strike in October for several weeks to protest against her prison conditions. A report released earlier this month alleged that she was amongst a number of female activists that were being tortured and forced to carry out “sex acts” while in detention.