In the context of the escalation of repression and the appalling harshness of sentences in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Specialized Criminal Court of Appeals sentenced activist Noura Al-Qahtani to prison and a ninety-year travel ban, on charges related to freedom of expression and possession of a book.
The Specialized Criminal Court had issued a preliminary ruling imprisoning her for 13 years, but the Public Prosecutor rejected the ruling and demanded the appeal judges to toughen the sentence, on the pretext that the activist Al-Qahtani did not plead guilty and that she could return to the practice of the alleged crimes.
The sentence, which extends for nine decades, provides for the imprisonment of the activist Al-Qahtani for 45 years and a travel ban for a similar period (45 years) after she completed her prison term and was released. The court relied on articles from the Law on Combating Terrorism Crimes and Financing it, the Law on Combating Information Crimes, and a disciplinary penalty. Through the definition of the United Nations and international laws, Saudi Arabia has a broad concept of terrorist crimes, as it considers simply criticizing the king or the crown prince a terrorist crime, according to Article 30 of the Law on Combating Terrorist Crimes and Financing it.
The Public Prosecution Office has charged al-Qahtani with several charges that are not recognized as crimes under international law, all of them related to the exercise of legitimate rights. of between it:
- Using her Twitter account to challenge the religion and justice of the King and the Crown Prince and to incite participation in peaceful activities.
- Publishing false and malicious tweets and her support for the ideology of those who seek to disturb public order, destabilize the security of society and the stability of the state, and endanger its national unity, follow them, publish their posts and join a Twitter group.
- Demanding the release of detainees in connection with security issues.
- She obstructed the investigation by destroying and hiding the mobile phone used in the charges brought against her.
- Possession of the book "Her sisters and I, Journey in Self-secrets" The book is written by the cleric Salman al-Awda, who is facing the death penalty.
Activist Noura Al-Qahtani suffers from diabetes and other chronic diseases. She is married and has five children, including a 10-year-old girl who suffers from delayed mental development. According to the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights, detainees in Saudi prisons are constantly subjected to ill-treatment and medical neglect, which in some cases led to the death of some of them.
Many families suffer from dispersion due to the arbitrary arrests that escalated in frequency in Saudi Arabia with the arrival of King Salman to power and the tightening of his control - with his son, the Crown Prince - over all the institutions and bodies of the sovereign state. The suffering of families who have a detained mother increases, because children will be deprived of their basic right to care, especially with the appalling harshness of the sentences. If the Supreme Court upholds Noura Al-Qahtani's ruling, she will be released from prison at the age of 90.
ESOHR believes that the imprisonment of Noura al-Qahtani on charges related to her posting of tweets on social media platforms; Twitter, and possession of a book, is a grossly unfair arbitrary arrest. It also believes that intensifying its ruling based on the system of combating terrorism crimes and its financing is a brutal punishment that is not based on just and internationally recognized laws.
In addition, ESOHR believes that the ruling confirms the misuse of the anti-terrorism law against activists and its arbitrary and unfair use in order to criminalize all forms of expression of opinion.
ESOHR also believes that the ruling of activist Noura Al-Qahtani - in addition to that of the activist Salma Al-Shehab - is the beginning of a new phase and era of repression and intimidation in Saudi Arabia, in which King Salman and his son, the Crown Prince, use long sentences that extend for decades to end the life of everyone who expresses his opinion in prison, in order to avoid excessive use of the death penalty.