communicating with Saudi Arabia's enemies, providing financial/moral support to hostile elements abroad

7-25-18  

  Loujain Al-Hathloul, 28, is among nine women held after a brutal crackdown in May - just as the desert kingdom was about to allow women to drive for the first time.  At the time campaigners were bidding to use the lifting of the driving ban as a springboard for further reforms such as ending Saudi Arabia's restrictive male guardianship system and allowing more freedom of speech.  But instead they were rounded up, thrown in jail and now face charges of treason that carry the harshest prison sentence - or even the death penalty….

  Kareem Chehayeb, Saudi Arabia researcher for Amnesty International, said:  'The Saudi authorities don't want any change to come from below. They want to stifle any form of dissent or human rights activism.  'It appears that the only reforms that are acceptable are those that are coming from above, which is absolutely outrageous.’ 

 

-Walaa al-Shubbar, in her late 20s, is thought to have been another arrested.  She has been active in calling for an end to guardianship rules and appeared on Arabic news programs to discuss issues of patriarchy in the kingdom.

  In March al-Hathloul, who has 316,000 Twitter followers, was stopped by police as she drove near her university in Abu Dhabi and put on a plane back to Saudi Arabia where she was banned from leaving the country or using social media.  Yesterday Amnesty International revealed the Riyadh authorities had claimed the prisoners confessed on June 2 to communicating with Saudi Arabia's enemies, and 'providing financial and moral support to hostile elements abroad'.

  Mr. Chehayeb said the group expects they will now be brought before the Specialised Criminal Court to face charges which amounted to treason, the penalty for which is 20 years in jail, or even the death sentence.  "They have been arrested purely based on their women's rights activism and these are trumped up charges for which they could get 20 years in jail.  We don't know the conditions in which they are being kept, we don't know if they have access to lawyers during these interrogations when they allegedly confessed to these crimes.  With treason you cannot rule out the death penalty but we anticipate they will be given harsh prison sentences based on trumped-up security-related charges."

  As well as Al-Hathloul, the other activists being held include Iman al-Nafjan, Aziza al-Yousef, Ibrahim al-Modeimegh, Mohammad al-Rabea and Mohammed al-Bajadi.  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5990737/Saudi-womens-rights-activist-posed-Meghan-Markle-faces-20-years-jail.html

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  The arrests were the latest example of a new and expanding tactic in Saudi Arabia of the state using anti-terrorism laws to silence dissent.  “In the past few years there has been an increasing trend of using nationalist rhetoric and accusations of terrorism to squelch anyone who might question the state,” said Zayadin.  Such allegations allow for the authorities to hold people for months without trial and prosecute them in the so-called Specialized Criminal Court, where they could face heavy sentences for nonviolent crimes.  “We’ve seen it used against conservatives and liberals alike,” Zayadin added, citing a slew of arrests in September 2017 during which the government rounded up a group of clerics, academics and journalists under similar charges of treason. (The Saudi embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.)…

  “With this kind of top-heavy rule there is no room for political or civil discourse.  MBS doesn’t want any accountability, and he has made clear he wants to be 100% in charge of the narrative.”  This, Khouri speculated, is the real reason behind the gag orders and arrests.  “Unlike his predecessors, who have consistently jailed activists and dissenters,” Khouri said, “MBS is now pre-emptively locking up those who might in the future oppose him in some way.”

  The diversity of those targeted is striking, encompassing dozens of conservative religious elites, as well as progressively minded figures such as al-Hathloul.  Though the state has continued to use anti-terrorism laws to justify the detentions, the lock-up of al-Hathloul and the other May arrestees was among the most aggressive the country has seen yet, said Zayadin.  “In this case, you saw an active smear campaign, linking these activists to foreign governments, especially Qatar,” she said. “This seems unprecedented, to be splattering the women’s faces with the word ‘traitor’ across the front pages of the media.  It’s dangerous and stigmatizing.  It seems like a push to end their careers in activism or keep them in jail a very long time.”  In other arrests however no reasons are given, with detainees simply vanishing into the penal system’s inscrutable folds.  Such cases are on the rise, added Zayadin.  Earlier this year Human Rights Watch reported a rapid increase in arbitrary detentions, with over 2,000 new cases between 2014 to 2018.  This new sense of vulnerability has all but halted any grassroots movement for reform.  https://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/saudi-women-who-fought-right-drive-are-disappearing-and-going-exile