A woman from Saudi Arabia was sentenced to 45 years in prison for posts on social networks. This is the second such case since August, BBC and Agerpres report.

A court in Saudi Arabia has convicted Noura bint Saeed al-Qahtani “for using the Internet to tear apart the social fabric” and “disrupting public order through the use of social media,” rights group Dawn reported.

There is little information about the convicted Saudi woman, but it is known that she criticized Saudi leaders.

Another woman was sentenced to 34 years in prison on August 9 because of her activity on Twitter.

Abdullah Alaoud, Dawn’s director of research for the Gulf region, told the BBC’s Newshour program that the group only became aware of Qahtani’s case after a judicial source handed it court documents.

“Nothing in her court documents relates to any violent acts or criminal activity,” he said. “The charges against her are really big. They are using the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Anti-Cybercrime Act… which can criminalize any position that is even slightly critical of the government,” he added.

Increasing repression in Saudi Arabia

Several other activists have reportedly been detained over social media posts since last year. Alaoud said he feared the women could also receive long prison terms.

“The government of Saudi Arabia is sending a strong signal to the West that it does not care about human rights,” he added. Alaoud warned that it was “impossible not to have a connection” between US President Joe Biden’s controversial meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed in Jeddah last month and the “intensification of repressive attacks”.

Earlier, Biden promised to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” regarding the human rights situation, but non-governmental organizations accuse him of breaking his word.

ALQST, a British human rights group, also expressed concern about Qahtani’s sentence, which it said was “based on (her) tweets.” “We fear that we are witnessing an alarming deterioration in the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia,” ALQST added. There was no immediate confirmation from Saudi authorities or state media.

Another Saudi woman was sentenced to 34 years in prison

In early August, Salma al-Shehab, a Saudi doctoral student at the University of Leeds, was sentenced to 34 years in prison. She was arrested while on vacation in Saudi Arabia in January 2021 and found guilty of providing “aid to those who attempted to disrupt public order” and “spreading false and biased rumours”.

Before leaving Britain, the 34-year-old mother of two called for reform and the release of activists and intellectuals jailed for cracking down on dissent under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Until Qahtani’s sentencing, Shehab’s prison sentence was believed to be the longest a peace activist had ever received in the country.