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11-02-2021
RIYADH: Prominent women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul has been released from a Saudi prison after nearly three years behind bars, according to her family.
“Loujain is at home!!!!!!” her sister Lina tweeted on Wednesday, posting a screenshot of al-Hathloul on a family video call.
Another sister, Alia, said in a separate post that al-Hathloul was at their parents’ home in Saudi Arabia, adding “this is the best day of my life”.
There was no immediate comment from Saudi authorities on her release.
Lina later thanked supporters on Twitter but said while Loujain is at home, “she is not free”.
“The fight is not over. I am not fully happy without the release of all political prisoners,” Lina tweeted.
Al-Hathloul, who pushed to end a ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia, was imprisoned in 2018 and sentenced by a court in December to an almost six-year jail term on terrorism-related charges, in a case that drew international condemnation.
Held for 1001 days, with stints in pre-trial detention and solitary confinement, she was found guilty on charges including agitating for change, pursuing a foreign agenda and using the internet to harm public order.
United Nations human rights experts called the charges “spurious” and Human Rights Watch (HRW) called the conviction a “travesty of justice”.
Her early release was widely expected as the judge suspended part of her sentence and gave her credit for time already served.
US President Joe Biden voiced his approval for her release.
“She was a powerful advocate for women’s rights and releasing her from prison was the right thing to do,” he said.
Many rejoiced over her release on social media.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Twitter he was pleased to see al-Hathloul’s release.
“Saudi Arabia’s sentencing of Loujain al-Hathloul for simply exercising her universal rights is unjust and troubling,” Sullivan tweeted.
“As we have said, the Biden-Harris administration will stand up against human rights violations wherever they occur.”
The US State Department separately also said her release was a welcome development.
Agnes Callamard, UN special rapporteur on extra-judicial executions tweeted: “We are holding her close and welcoming her home.
“The cruelty of Saudi Arabia rulers that kept her away from her family, her 
home; that violated her most basic right to physical and mental integrity should not be forgotten,” Callamard said.
Kenneth Roth, HRW executive director, said al-Hathloul should never have been imprisoned.
Al-Hathloul was arrested for the first time in 2014 while attempting to drive across the border from the United Arab Emirates where she had a valid driver’s licence to Saudi Arabia. She spent 73 days in a women’s detention facility, an experience she later said helped shape her campaign against the kingdom’s male guardianship system.
In 2016, a year after she became one of the first women to stand for municipal elections in Saudi Arabia, she was among 14,000 signatories on a petition to King Salman calling for an end to the guardianship system.
In March 2018, al-Hathloul was again arrested in the UAE where she was studying and forcibly flown to Riyadh where she was held under house arrest 
before being moved to prison in May, according to rights groups. She was among at least a dozen other women’s rights activists arrested, and Saudi media tarred them as traitors.
Rights groups say at least three of the women, including al-Hathloul, were held in solitary confinement for months and subjected to abuse including electric shocks, flogging and sexual assault. Saudi authorities have denied torture allegations.
Rights organisations have also documented the torture and sexual violence al-Hathloul has been subjected to since her arrest.
According to her family members, some of the torture sessions have been in the presence of MBS’s close aide Saud al-Qahtani.
Saudi judges recently dismissed those allegations.
In August 2019, al-Hathloul’s family said she had rejected a proposal to secure her release from prison in exchange for a video statement denying reports she was tortured in custody. (Agencies)
