NO JUSTICE

Top Saudi Women’s Rights Activist Loujain al-Hathloul Given Six-Year Prison Sentence

Officials in the kingdom have repeatedly denied claims from human-rights activists that she was arrested for her peaceful campaign to win the right for women to drive.

It’s been more than two years since Loujain al-Hathloul, one of Saudi Arabia’s most renowned women’s right activists, was detained on terrorism-related charges. On Monday, she was sentenced to five years and eight months in jail—but the court suspended two years and 10 months of the sentence, and backdated the start of her jail term to her arrest in May 2018, so she has three months left to serve. According to The Guardian, she was found guilty of spying with foreign parties and conspiring against the kingdom. Officials have repeatedly denied claims from human-rights activists that she was arrested for her peaceful campaign to win the right for women to drive, instead alleging that she tried to undermine the royal family. The 31-year-old was arrested with around a dozen other women activists weeks before Saudi Arabia lifted its ban on female drivers.