{"id":59360,"date":"2020-12-28T20:30:07","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T01:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=59360"},"modified":"2020-12-28T21:26:03","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T02:26:03","slug":"saudi-court-jails-womens-rights-activist-posing-challenge-for-biden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/saudi-court-jails-womens-rights-activist-posing-challenge-for-biden\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi court jails women\u2019s rights activist, posing challenge for Biden"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsaudi-court-jails-womens-rights-activist-posing-challenge-for-biden%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=59360&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>December 29, 2020<\/p>\n<p>By Raya Jalabi and Marwa Rashad<\/p>\n<p>DUBAI (Reuters) -A Saudi court on Monday sentenced prominent women\u2019s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul to nearly six years in prison, her family said, after her conviction in a trial that has drawn international condemnation.<\/p>\n<p>The verdict and sentence pose a challenge to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman\u2019s relationship with U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, who has criticised Riyadh\u2019s human rights record.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-spot\">\n<p><!-- AuctionX Display platform tag START --><\/p>\n<div id=\"24697x300x250x4195x_ADSLOT1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Hathloul, 31, who has been held since 2018 following her arrest along with several other women\u2019s rights activists, will appeal the sentence, her sister said.<\/p>\n<p>She was charged with seeking to change the Saudi political system and harming national security, Saudi newspapers Sabq and al-Shark al-Awsat said, under broad counter-terrorism laws.<\/p>\n<p>The court suspended two years and 10 months of her sentence of five years and eight months \u2013 most already served since her arrest on May 15, 2018 \u2013 with a conditional release to follow, Hathloul\u2019s sister, Lina, said.<\/p>\n<p>She could therefore be released by March 2021, with a return to prison possible if she commits any crime, the newspapers said.<\/p>\n<p>Hathloul was also banned from travel for five years, her sister said, adding that Hathloul cried when she was sentenced and will appeal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy sister is not a terrorist, she is an activist. To be sentenced for her activism for the very reforms that MBS and the Saudi kingdom so proudly tout is the ultimate hypocrisy,\u201d Lina said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. State Department spokesman Cale Brown said the United States was \u201cconcerned by reports\u201d of Hathloul\u2019s sentence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve emphasized the importance of free expression and peaceful activism in Saudi Arabia as it advances women\u2019s rights. We look forward to her anticipated early release in 2021,\u201d he said on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>Jake Sullivan, Biden\u2019s incoming national security adviser, appeared to reaffirm on Twitter that the Biden administration plans to elevate human rights issues in relations with Riyadh.<\/p>\n<p>Hathloul\u2019s sentencing \u201cfor simply exercising her universal rights is unjust and troubling,\u201d Sullivan wrote in a tweet. \u201cAs we have said, the Biden-Harris administration will stand up against human rights violations wherever they occur.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>United Nations human rights experts have called the charges \u201cspurious.\u201d The U.N. human rights office said the conviction was \u201cdeeply troubling\u201d and called for her urgent release.<\/p>\n<p>Rights groups and her family say Hathloul, who campaigned for women\u2019s right to drive and to end the kingdom\u2019s male guardianship system, was subjected to abuse, including electric shocks, waterboarding, flogging and sexual assault. Saudi authorities have denied the charges.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, Hathloul refused to rescind her allegations of torture in exchange for early release, her family has said. A court last week dismissed the allegations, citing a lack of evidence.<\/p>\n<p>Sabq and al-Shark al-Awsat reported the judge said had Hathloul confessed to the crimes without coercion.<\/p>\n<p>Hathloul\u2019s sentencing came nearly three weeks after a Riyadh court jailed U.S.-Saudi physician Walid al-Fitaihi for six years, despite U.S. pressure to release him, in a case activists have called politically motivated.<\/p>\n<p>Foreign diplomats said their trials aimed to send a message at home and abroad that Saudi Arabia would not yield to pressure on human rights issues.<\/p>\n<p>Riyadh could also use the sentences as leverage in future negotiations with the Biden administration, one diplomat said.<\/p>\n<p>Biden has said he will take a firmer line with the kingdom, an oil titan and a major buyer of American arms, than President Donald Trump, who was a strong supporter of Prince Mohammed and provided a buffer against international criticism following the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>CHARGE SHEET<\/p>\n<p>Hathloul rose to prominence in 2013 when she began publicly campaigning for women\u2019s right to drive.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi officials have said the arrests of women activists were made on suspicion of harming Saudi interests and offering support to hostile elements abroad.<\/p>\n<p>London-based Saudi rights group ALQST said another activist, Mayaa al-Zahrani, was also convicted on Monday and given the same sentence as Hathloul. In addition, Nassimah al-Saadah was sentenced to five years in prison with two suspended in late November, according to Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n<p>Hathloul\u2019s family published her indictment after her case was transferred to Riyadh\u2019s Specialised Criminal Court, originally established to try terrorism suspects but which has been used over the past decade to prosecute perceived dissidents.<\/p>\n<p>The main charges against Hathloul, which carried up to 20 years in prison, included seeking to change the Saudi political system, calling for an end to male guardianship, attempting to apply for a U.N. job, and communicating with international rights groups and Saudi activists.<\/p>\n<p>Hathloul was also charged with speaking to foreign diplomats and with international media about women\u2019s rights in the kingdom, including Reuters, which declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe case against Loujain, based solely on her human rights activism, is a travesty of justice and reveals the depths to which they will go to root out independent voices,\u201d said Adam Coogle of Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n<p>The Saudi government media office did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>(Reporting by Raya Jalabi and Aziz El Yaakoubi in Dubai and Marwa Rashad in London; Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Jonathan Landay in Washington; Writing by Raya Jalabi; Editing by Dan Grebler and Stephen Coates)<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-spot\">\n<p><!-- AuctionX Display platform tag START --><\/p>\n<div id=\"24697x300x250x4195x_ADSLOT1\"><\/div>\n<p><!-- AuctionX Display platform tag END --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-pw-desk=\"med_rect_atf\"><\/div>\n<div data-pw-mobi=\"med_rect_atf\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Raya Jalabi and Marwa Rashad DUBAI (Reuters) -A Saudi court on Monday sentenced prominent women&#8217;s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul to nearly six years in prison, her family said, after her<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2273696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2273696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}