RIYADH (AFP) - A Saudi court has recently sentenced women's rights activist Manahel al-Otaibi to 11 years in prison in a "secret hearing", according to two human rights groups who denounced the ruling as contradictory to the kingdom’s “narrative of reform and women’s empowerment”.
Over the past few years, Saudi Arabia has carefully crafted an image of an open, transformed and glamorous society where women can now drive, female dress codes have been relaxed and the government has invested hugely in sports and entertainment.
But over the last two years the government has convicted and sentenced dozens of people for expressing their views against the authorities online, according to a statement published Tuesday by human rights groups.
In the statement, Amnesty International and ALQST, a London-based Saudi rights organisation, called for the immediate and unconditional release of Manahel al-Otaibi, a 29-year-old fitness instructor and women’s rights activist who was sentenced to 11 years in prison by a Saudi court on January 9.
The court's decision only emerged publicly in Saudi Arabia's formal reply to a request from the United Nations human rights office about Otaibi's case, Amnesty said in a statement on Tuesday.
The document, dated January 24 and seen by AFP on Tuesday, indicated that Otaibi "was convicted of terrorist offences that have no bearing on her exercise of freedom of opinion and expression or her social media posts".
Social media postsDespite unrelated charges, Otaibi was found guilty of “terrorist offences” by Saudi Arabia’s Specialised Criminal Court (SCC), the NGOs said.
The SCC was established in 2008 to handle terrorism-related cases but has been widely used to try political dissidents and human rights activists.
Otaibi was arrested in November 2022 after publishing social media posts calling for an end to her country's male guardianship laws and requirements for women to wear the traditional body-covering abaya.
According to Saudi Arabia’s Permanent Mission in Geneva, Otaibi has violated the kingdom’s counter-terrorism law which criminalises “any person who creates, launches, or uses a website or a program on a computer or on an electronic device … or to publish information on the manufacture of incendiary devices, explosives, or any other devices used in terrorist crimes“, as well as “any person who, by any means, broadcasts or publishes news, statements, false or malicious rumours, or the like for committing a terrorist crime”.
“Manahel’s conviction and 11-year sentence is an appalling and cruel injustice,” said Bissan Fakih, Amnesty’s campaigner on Saudi Arabia.
Otaibi’s family only learned of her 11-year sentence through the Saudi government's formal reply to a UN request for information about her case.
Otaibi’s older sister Foz al-Otaibi told AFP that she was shocked by the news, adding that her sister "did not do anything that deserved to be imprisoned for up to 11 years".
In a video posted on X on Wednesday, Foz appealed to fans of Saudi-funded football clubs to call for her sister’s release.
Foz, who has 2.5 million followers on the social media app Snapchat, faced similar charges but fled Saudi Arabia after being summoned for questioning in 2022.
Abuse in prisonFollowing her arrest, Otaibi was subjected to physical and psychological abuse in Riyadh’s Malaz Prison, Amnesty and ALQST said.
“Since the moment she was arrested, Saudi Arabia’s authorities have subjected her to a relentless catalogue of abuses, from unlawful detention for supporting women’s rights to enforced disappearance for over five months while she was being secretly interrogated, tried and sentenced and subjected to repeated beatings by others in the prison,” Fakih said.
Contact between Otaibi and her family was cut off between November 2023 and April 2024.
When Otaibi was finally allowed to contact her family again on April 14, she told them she was being held in solitary confinement and had a broken leg as a result of physical abuse.
Otaibi also said she was denied healthcare.
“Saudi authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Manahel al-Otaibi and all those currently detained in the kingdom for the peaceful exercise of their human rights. Pending al-Otaibi’s release, the authorities must ensure her safety and access to adequate healthcare,” said Lina Alhathloul, ALQST’s Head of Monitoring and Advocacy.
Zero-tolerance policySaudia Arabia’s sentencing of Otaibi “directly contradicts the authorities’ narrative of reform and women’s empowerment", the NGOs said.
“With this sentence the Saudi authorities have exposed the hollowness of their much-touted women’s rights reforms in recent years and demonstrated their chilling commitment to silencing peaceful dissent,” Fakih said.
"What's at stake is freedom of political expression,” said Arnaud Lacheret, professor of political science at Skema Business School and author of "La femme est l'avenir du Golfe" ("Women are the future of the Gulf").
“Problems arise as soon as there is the slightest criticism of the regime,” he said.
While Saudi Arabia has lifted several restrictions imposed on women in recent years such as the ban on driving and the abaya dress code, human rights activists say that the country still discriminates against women.
The Personal Status Law, which came into force in 2022, continues to restrict women’s rights in the kingdom by enshrining the male guardianship system, activists say.
Despite the Saudi government touting the law as “comprehensive” and “progressive”, it contains discriminatory provisions against women concerning marriage, divorce, and decisions about their children, Human Rights Watch said in a March report.
“It is time that Saudi authorities amended the discriminatory provisions in the Personal Status Law and abolished the male guardianship system in its entirety,” Fakih said.
Otaibi’s sentencing came amid an intensified crackdown on free speech in Saudi Arabia, Amnesty and ALQST said, highlighting the lengthy prison terms handed to several women including Salma al-Shehab, 27, Fatima al-Shawarbi, 30, Sukaynah al-Aithan, 40, and Nourah al-Qahtani, 45.
Shehab, a PhD student and mother of two, was arrested in 2021 during a visit to Saudi Arabia from the UK and is currently serving a 27-year sentence for social media posts critical of the government.
“Saudi authorities have adopted a zero-tolerance policy for any criticism, no matter how innocuous. They have shuttered all human rights groups, wiping out any form of independent civil society in the kingdom,” Amnesty said in a petition against repression.
Mohammed al-Ghamdi, a government critic who denounced alleged corruption and human rights abuses on social media, was arrested in June 2022 and sentenced to death last year. He had just 10 followers on X, formerly Twitter, as well as on YouTube.
According to Amnesty International, as of January 31, 2024, at least 69 people were “being prosecuted for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, including human rights defenders, peaceful political activists, journalists, poets and religious dignitaries”.