Hathloul, 31, was arrested in a cattle raid in May 2018 targeting well-known opponents of the then-repealed legislation banning women from driving.
Last December, Riad’s Specialized Criminal Court – a terror court – sentenced Hathloul to five years and eight months in prison, including a two-year and ten-month suspension, according to a statement released by her family. With the time she has already served, the sentencing on Wednesday paved the way for Hathloul’s release.
Hathloul will remain on probation for three years after her release, during which time she could be arrested for any illegal activity, the family said in a statement in December. They 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 put Saudi Arabia under pressure to improve his legal record, indicating a departure from former President Donald Trump’s reluctance to criticize the recent growing inconsistency against the kingdom.
“We are excited (about her 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 bring about justice for Loujain, but we are very pleased with this news.”
The family urged people to refrain from saying that Hathloul was ‘liberated’.
“Any release that does not include an independent investigation into the charges, including the lifting of the travel ban, not the omission of the charges, is not freedom,” Walid al-Hathloul said. “Therefore we are far from righteousness.”
The terror court found Hathloul guilty on charges of violating national security, attempting to change the Saudi political system, and using her relations with foreign governments and rights groups to ‘push the Kingdom to change its laws and systems. to change ‘, according to a complaint from her family published earlier in December.
UN experts call the charges ‘untrue’. In a six-page indictment for Hathloul’s case, seen by CNN, a section titled “crimes committed” activism against the kingdom’s restrictive laws on male guardianship, as well as contact with foreign journalists and diplomats.
According to the documents, the charges also point to a series of alleged confessions, which state that Hathloul admitted that he applied to the UN, as well as that he was in contact with the human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
For much of her imprisonment, Hathloul explained her hardships to her parents during their prison visit. The allegations were later made public by three of her siblings living outside the kingdom, and were confirmed by the court testimony of other female activists.
According to Hathloul, she was sexually assaulted and tortured while in custody, including watercraft, beatings and electricity, according to several statements made by her family and supporters.
Saudi authorities have repeatedly denied allegations of torture and sexual abuse in their prisons.
According to her family, Hathloul went on a hunger strike twice – in protest of her imprisonment and because she was denied communication with her family members.
A 2019 report by the U.S. Attorney’s Center for Human Rights states that although the Saudi Arabia’s terror court was established in 2008 to prosecute prisoners against terrorism, the “case load has rapidly expanded from suspected violent extremists to politically dissident, religious include minorities and human rights activists. ” The report concluded that the court “regularly convicted individuals on charges of terrorism without any meaningful evidence.”
Earlier this week, a Saudi appeals court rejected Hathloul’s torture claims, the family said on Twitter.
During her detention, Hathloul received several awards, including the PEN America Award for 2019. According to Amnesty International, three other women rights activists arrested along with Hathloul – Nassima al-Sada, Nouf Abdulaziz and Maya’a al-Zahrani – remain in detention. Sada and Abdulaziz also receive PEN America awards.
Asked if Hathloul’s siblings, who were a driving force behind an international campaign to release their sister, could speak to her by telephone after her release from custody, Walid said: ‘I do not know. We’re going to have to wait and see. ‘