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Hathloul, 31, was arrested in a May 2018 sweep that targeted well-known opponents of the kingdom’s law, which has since repealed, banning women from driving.
Last December, the Riyadh Specialized Criminal Court – a terrorist court – sentenced Hathloul to five years and eight months in prison, including a suspension of two years and 10 months, according to a statement released by his family. With the time she had already served, the sentence paved the way for Hathloul’s release on Wednesday.
Hathloul will remain on probation for three years after her release, during which time she could be arrested for any suspected illegal activity, the family said in a statement in December. She will also be banned from traveling for five years, they said.
Hathloul’s release comes less than a week after the White House called on the kingdom to release political prisoners, including women’s rights activists. President Joe Biden has vowed to pressure Saudi Arabia to improve its rights record, marking a departure from former President Donald Trump’s reluctance to criticize the intensified crackdown on dissent by the kingdom in recent years.
“We are delighted (about his release), but the fight for justice is not over yet,” Hathloul’s brother Walid al-Hathloul told CNN ahead of the announcement. “We will have to work very hard to get justice for Loujain, but we are very happy with this news.”
The family urged people to refrain from saying that Hathloul has been “released”.
“Any release that does not include an independent investigation into the charges, does not include the lifting of the travel ban, does not include the dropping of charges, is not freedom,” said Walid al. -Hathloul. “Therefore, we are far from justice.”
The Terrorism Tribunal convicted Hathloul of undermining national security, seeking to change the Saudi political system and using his relations with foreign governments and rights groups to “pressure the Kingdom to change its laws and its systems, “according to a family report released earlier in December.
UN experts called the accusations “spurious”. In a six-page indictment sheet for Hathloul’s case, seen by CNN, a section titled “crimes committed” includes activism against the kingdom’s restrictive male guardianship laws, as well as contact with foreign journalists and diplomats. .
The charges were also based on a series of alleged confessions, according to the documents, which indicate that Hathloul admitted to applying for a job at the UN and confessed to having been in contact with human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
During much of his imprisonment, Hathloul detailed his difficulties to his parents during their prison visits. These allegations were later made public by three of her siblings who live outside the kingdom and were corroborated by testimony in court from other activists.
Hathloul said she was sexually assaulted and tortured while in detention, including waterboarding, flogging and electrocution, according to several statements released by her family and supporters.
Saudi authorities have repeatedly denied allegations of torture and sexual abuse in their prisons.
Hathloul has gone on hunger strike twice – to protest her conditions of detention and because she has been denied contact with relatives – according to her family.
A 2019 American Bar Association Center for Human Rights report said that although the Saudi Terrorism Tribunal was established in 2008 to prosecute terrorist detainees, “its caseload quickly expanded, moving from suspected violent extremists to political dissidents, religious minorities and human rights activists. ” The report concluded that the court “routinely convicts individuals of terrorism without any significant evidence”.
Earlier this week, a Saudi appeals court dismissed Hathloul’s torture allegations, the family said on Twitter.
During her detention, Hathloul received several awards, including the 2019 PEN America Prize. Three other women’s rights activists arrested alongside Hathloul – Nassima al-Sada, Nouf Abdulaziz and Maya’a al-Zahrani – are still in custody. detention, according to Amnesty International. Sada and Abdulaziz are also recipients of the PEN America Award.
When asked if Hathloul’s siblings, who have been a driving force behind an international campaign for their sister’s release, could speak to him on the phone after her release from detention, Walid said: “I don’t know no. We’re going to have to wait and see. ”
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