Women held for defying ban on driving to be tried in terror court

TWO Saudi women detained for nearly a month in defiance of a ban on females driving were referred yesterday to a court established to try terrorism cases, several people close to the defendants said.

Activists said it marks the first time women drivers have been referred to the Specialised Criminal Court in Riyadh, and that their detention is the longest of female drivers in Saudi history.

Four individuals close to Loujain al-Hathloul, 25, and Maysa alAmoudi, 33, said they are not being charged for defying the driving ban but for opinions they voiced online. The individuals declined to elaborate on the specific charges due to the sensitivity of the case.

They said the women’s defence lawyers immediately appealed the judge’s decision to transfer their cases to the court, which was established to try terrorism cases but has also been used to try peaceful dissidents and activists. An appeals court in Dammam, the capital of Eastern Province, is expected to rule on the referral in the coming days, they said.

Human Rights Watch recently warned that ‘‘Saudi authorities are ramping up their crackdown on people who peacefully criticise the government on the internet.’’ It said that judges and prosecutors are using ‘‘vague provisions of a 2007 anti-cybercrime law to charge and try Saudi citizens for peaceful tweets and social media comments’’.

At the time of their arrest, alHathloul and al-Amoudi had a combined Twitter following of more than 355,000. They were vocal supporters of a grassroots campaign launched last year to oppose the ban on women driving.

Authorities have a history of clamping down on Saudi women who attempt to drive. In 1990, 50 women were arrested for driving. They had their passports confiscated and lost their jobs. In 2011, a woman was sentenced to 10 lashes for driving, though the king overturned the sentence.

Supporters of the current driving campaign delivered a petition to the royal court this month asking King Abdullah to pardon the two women.

Activists say the ban on women driving underpins wider issues related to guardianship laws in Saudi Arabia that give men powerful sway over women’s lives.