Saudi Arabia frees activist Loujain al-Hathloul
A thousand and one days and a thousand and one nights. That's how long Saudi women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul spent in prison. The 31-year-old was released on Wednesday after spending nearly three years in prison, her family tweeted.
"Loujain is home!" the activist's sister, Lina al-Hathloul, announced on her Twitter account, accompanying the text with a screenshot of a video conference in which Loujain is shown smiling.
The family has also indicated that the activist has been released from prison with precautionary measures, including a ban on travel outside the Kingdom.
Saudi women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison for terrorism-related offences, according to the Specialised Criminal Court set up in 2008 to investigate terrorism-related offences.
She went on hunger strike more than once to demand her rights and protest against her detention. According to Saudi media, Loujain's sentence at the end of last year was suspended for two years and ten months "on condition that she does not commit another crime within three years". The court also banned the activist from leaving the Saudi kingdom for five years.
Born in July 1989 in the Saudi city of Jeddah, Loujain lived between her homeland, France, Canada and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where she trained and actively advocated for women's right to drive, to participate in political life and advocated for an end to the male guardianship system in Saudi Arabia.
Together with other activists, in 2013 Loujain launched a campaign against the ban on women driving that received international support, but was boycotted and repressed by the Saudi authorities, who targeted her for the first time.
A year later, the activist announced on social media that, with her Emirati driver's licence, she would cross the border into Saudi Arabia legally, as there was no rule prohibiting this action. The young woman broadcast this moment live on social media.
"I'm on the Quwaifa highway and I'm going to try to cross the Saudi border. I'm driving my car and I have an Emirates licence (...). Let's see what happens," Al-Hathloul said from behind the wheel in a video that has already racked up nearly 1.5 million views on YouTube.
Those were Loujain's last words before she was sent to prison for the first time, where she was held for 73 days.
In 2015, she stood for election; it was the first time that women were allowed to vote and stand for election. Despite being recognised as a candidate, her name was never included on the ballot paper. In May 2018 she was arrested again, accused of "wanting to destabilise the country". On 28 December she was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison.
In recent years, the Gulf monarchy has been lifting bans on women in a kind of openness. A year ago it was announced that the ban on travel abroad without permits would be lifted, as well as the right to enter sports venues and restaurants and to drive cars. All of these rights were some of the rights that the now released activist had been demanding for the past few years.
The United States on Wednesday welcomed the release of the Saudi activist. The release is "certainly a very welcome development," US State Department spokesman Ned Price said. "The promotion and defence of women's rights and other human rights should never be criminalised," he told reporters.
Likewise, "I welcome the release of Loujain al-Hathloul and share his family's relief," tweeted French President Emmanuel Macron, who had criticised his imprisonment and strongly called for his release on 8 March 2019.
For his part, the executive director of the NGO Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, said via Twitter that the Saudi activist "should never have been imprisoned" and indicated that the kingdom's "so-called reformist" crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, "imprisoned her for standing up for her rights".
In a statement, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Lynn Maalouf, said the release of Loujain, who was arrested and had been imprisoned since May 2018, "is an incredible relief, but it is long overdue".
The UN Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, also welcomed the activist's release and said that "Saudi Arabia's next steps are to ensure that all restrictions against her are lifted" and that all imprisoned activists "are released unconditionally".
Their release crowns the efforts of international human rights organisations, which have been particularly active in their case. It also reflects the Saudi crown's desire to appease the new US administration, which says it is determined, unlike the previous one, to make the defence of human rights a marker of its foreign policy.