Saudi court upholds women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul’s six-year sentence

The prominent campaigner remains under a travel ban following release from prison

Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul is pictured on her way to the state security court in the Saudi capital Riyadh (AFP via Getty Images)

A court in Saudi Arabia has upheld a nearly six-year sentence of activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who championed women’s right to drive and pushed for an end to the country’s male guardianship system.

Ms Hathloul was sentenced in December under sweeping cybercrime and counterterrorirsm laws after a lengthy trial that drew widespread condemnation from around the world.

She was released last month after serving half of her custodial term. Before her appeals hearing on Wednesday morning, she told reporters in her first public comments since her arrest in 2018 that she hoped Riyadh’s Special Criminal Court would amend her sentence, which still prevents her from leaving the country.

However, the court ruled the sentence would stand, drawing fresh condemnation from rights groups.

“By failing to quash Loujain al-Hathloul’s conviction, the Saudi Arabian authorities have clearly demonstrated that they consider peaceful activism a crime,” said Lyn Maalouf, a Middle East researcher for Amnesty International.

The court suspended two years and 10 months of her jail sentence but Ms Hathloul’s release is conditional and she remains under a five-year travel ban.

She became a prominent figure in 2013 when she started campaigning for women’s right to drive in Saudi Arabia, which had previously banned them from doing so. The law changed in 2018 in a historic move that saw tens of thousands of driving licenses issued to Saudi women in the first year.

Ms Hathloul was arrested for the first time in 2014 when she attempted to drive across the border from the United Arab Emirates, where she had a valid driver’s license, to Saudi Arabia.

She spent 73 days in a women’s detention facility, which she said helped her shape her campaigning against the kingdom’s male guardianship system.

The guardianship system means each woman is assigned a male relative whose approval is needed for various big decisions throughout her life.

The kingdom has since made some small changes to guardianship laws. In 2019, it passed legislation to allow women to obtain a passport and travel abroad without a male relative’s permission. Women were also afforded standard employment discrimination protections.

The reforms were hailed at the time as being “history in the making” by Saudia Arabia’s ambassador to the US, Princess Reema pint Bandar.

But US president Joe Biden’s administration, which has taken a tougher stance over the kingdom’s human rights record than his predecessor Donald Trump, urged Riyadh to release political prisoners, including women’s rights activists.

Earlier this month, Washington said it was encouraged to see some activists, including Ms Hathloul, had been released. But it urged Saudi Arabia to lift travel bans, commute sentences and resolve cases including those of women’s rights activists.

Additional reporting by agencies