A Saudi Arabian woman was sentenced to 34 years in prison for her Twitter activity.

Transcript

00:00Saudi Arabian Salma Al-Shahab was sentenced to 34 years in prison for using Twitter.

00:05The 34-year-old doctoral student was arrested in January 2021 while on vacation in Saudi Arabia.

00:11When she was arrested, she was preparing to return home to the UK with her two children.

00:15The Saudi Special Counterterrorism Court accused her of following and retweeting

00:20pro-democracy activists on Twitter. On her account, Al-Shahab relayed messages from

00:25Saudi exiles who called for the release of political prisoners in their country

00:29to her nearly 2,800 followers. She was initially sentenced to three years in prison. However,

00:35an appeals court sentenced her to 34 years in prison and handed down a travel ban of an

00:39additional 34 years. The regime accuses Al-Shahab of helping those who seek to cause public unrest

00:46and destabilize civil and national security by following their Twitter accounts, per The Guardian.

00:51She may still be able to appeal the decision. It is the longest prison sentence handed down

00:56to a women's rights activist in Saudi Arabia.