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Prisoners of Conscience, a Twitter account that tracks political arrests in Saudi Arabia, demanded on Monday the Saudi authorities to immediately disclose the situation of Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who has been in prison in Saudi Arabia for two years.The group’s tweet came after her family confirmed that they had lost contact with her for the third consecutive week and she was prevented from receiving visits for more than two months.
“We call on the Saudi authorities to immediately disclose the condition of Lujain Al-Hathloul, and her health conditions by allowing her to communicate with her family, and to release her immediately without delay or preconditions,” the group said in a tweet.Earlier Monday, the opposition account quoted a tweet of the Al-Hathloul’s family, expressing concern about their daughter’s health conditions after not allowing contact with her for the third week, and preventing visits since mid-March.
“The family confirms its concern about the conditions of Loujain and her health as this interruption in communications and visits is similar to the period when she was previously subjected to torture and solitary confinement,” her family said.A few days ago, activists launched a hashtag on Twitter entitled “Where is Loujain”, during which they expressed their anger that the Saudi authorities did not allow her to contact her family on the Eid, at the same time they called on the authorities to reassure her family.
Many activists have criticized the Saudi royal family, especially Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, who has became “afraid of women,” as they said.Loujain al-Hathloul is being tried on a variety of charges linked to her peaceful human rights activities. She has endured a range of human rights violations while in prison, including torture, sexual abuse and other forms of ill-treatment. For the first three months of her detention, she was held incommunicado with no access to her family and lawyer. Since January 2020, she has also been subjected to spells in solitary confinement.
Currently, 13 women’s rights activists remain on trial facing prosecution for their peaceful activism, and risk being sentenced to prison under anti-cybercrime legislation for their human rights work. Of the 13, five remain in detention – including Loujain al-Hathloul, Samar Badawi, Nassima al-Sada, Nouf Abdulaziz and Maya’a al-Zahrani. They should be released immediately and unconditionally, and all charges against them and against those women who were conditionally released, should be dropped.
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