Loujain al-Hathloul’s fight continues

Women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul is appealing against her verdict. A court in Saudi Arabia had convicted her of being a terrorist – for getting behind the wheel of a car, among other things.

She is not giving up: Loujain al-Hathloul wants to appeal against the verdict of Saudi Arabia's Specialized Criminal Court, the country’s highest terrorism court. "Loujain cannot live with the fact that she is convicted as a terrorist," Alia alHathloul, Loujain's older sister, told DW. According to the Saudi court, an appeal can be filed within 30 days of the verdict. "My sister is very brave and she will fight for her innocence to be recognized, although there is a risk that an appeal could lead to a different verdict," al-Hathloul said.

Last week, the Saudi Specialized Criminal Court sentenced the 31-year-old activist to five years and eight months in prison on the basis of Article 43 of the country’s Law against Terrorism and Financing Crimes. The time in custody since May 2018 will be deducted from this, and all but three months of the remaining two years and ten months in prison will be suspended. To that extent, Loujain al-Hathloul could be released in March 2021. "However, this assumes that there is no appeal, nor that the Saudi authorities postpone the release for other reasons," says Alia al-Hathloul, who lives in Brussels. Her impression, confirmed by her parents on the ground in Riyadh, is that the Saudi authorities "want to finally close the case to save face."

A discharge from prison is not an acquittal

Recently, international pressure on the Saudi authorities and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had increased sharply. International human rights organizations and even politicians from the United States, Saudi Arabia’s confederates, had called for al-Hathloul to be released unconditionally. "This conviction, despite the suspended sentence, shows the cruelty of the Saudi authorities to one of the bravest women to have voiced aloud her dreams for a better Saudi Arabia," said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Loujain al-Hathloul, a 2019 and 2020 nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, had been arrested three weeks before the ban on women driving was lifted, after she and 13 other activists had been driving cars. She had also campaigned for women's rights and against the prevailing male guardianship system, in which women have severely limited rights without male consent. Saudi authorities had accused Loujain al-Hathloul of "violating the anti-terror law."

In the coming days, al-Hathloul's parents, who are her legal representatives, plan to seek an appointment to visit her in prison to discuss the next steps with their daughter.

Support from Berlin

During the trial, Germany’s Federal Foreign Office in Berlin had already spoken out in favor of an immediate acquittal several times and had tried in vain to gain access to the court hearings. Bärbel Kofler, Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office, said: "It is incomprehensible that a human rights activist should be sentenced under anti-terrorism laws. No conduct worthy of punishment is discernible on the part of Ms. al-Hathloul. On the contrary, she has shown great courage in advocating for more self-determination and rights for Saudi women - an endeavor to which the Saudi government has now also committed itself."

In response to a DW inquiry, the Federal Foreign Office confirmed that the arms embargo against Saudi Arabia will be extended for another year. Originally, the arms export ban had been imposed until December 31, 2020, following the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.