Hathloul, 31, was arrested in a May 2018 sweep that targeted well-known opponents of the kingdom’s law banning driving.
Last December, the Riyadh Specialized Criminal Court (a terrorism court) sentenced Hathloul to five years and eight months in prison, including a two- and ten-month suspension, according to a statement issued by his family. By the time he 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 perceived illegal activity, the family said in a statement in December. He 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 pledged to pressure Saudi Arabia to improve its rights record, marking the abandonment of former President Donald Trump’s reluctance to criticize the repression of the kingdom’s dissent in recent years.
“We are excited (with his freedom), but the fight for justice is not over yet,” Hathloul’s brother Walid al-Hathloul told CNN before the announcement. “We should work very hard to ensure justice for Loujain, but we are delighted with this news.”
The family has urged people to refrain from saying Hathloul has been “released.”
“Any release that does not include an independent investigation of the charges, does not include the lifting of the travel ban, does not include the lifting of the charges, is not freedom,” Walid al-Hathloul said. “Therefore, we are far from justice.”
The terrorism court convicted Hathloul of charges of damaging national security, attempting 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 systems,” according to a sheet burden of his family. published earlier in December.
UN experts called the charges “fake.” In a six-page indictment for Hathloul’s case, seen by CNN, a section titled “Crimes Committed” includes activism against the kingdom’s restrictive male guardianship laws, along with contact with foreign journalists and diplomats.
The charges were also based on a series of alleged confessions, according to documents, which state that Hathloul admitted to having applied for a job at the UN along with confessing to being in contact with human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
For much of his imprisonment, Hathloul detailed his difficulties to his parents during his visits to the prison. These accusations were later made public by three of his brothers living outside the kingdom and were corroborated by the judicial testimony of other activists.
Hathloul said she was sexually assaulted and tortured while in custody, including waterboarding, flogging and electrocution, according to multiple statements from her family and supporters.
Saudi authorities have repeatedly denied allegations of torture and sexual abuse in their prisons.
According to his family, Hathloul has gone on hunger strike twice in protest of prison conditions and because he was denied communication with his relatives.
A 2019 report by the American Bar Association’s Human Rights Center said that although the Saudi terrorism court was set up in 2008 to prosecute terrorist detainees, its “number of cases has expanded rapidly since of alleged violent extremists to include political dissidents, religious minorities and human rights activists. ” The report concluded that the court “routinely convicts people of terrorism charges without any significant evidence.”
Earlier this week, a Saudi court of appeals rejected Hathloul’s torture claims, the family said on Twitter.
During his detention, Hathloul received several awards, including the PEN America Award 2019. According to Amnesty International, three other women’s rights activists arrested alongside Hathloul (Nassima al-Sada, Nouf Abdulaziz and Maya’a al-Zahrani ) continue to be detained. Sada and Abdulaziz are also awarded the PEN America Prize.
When asked if Hathloul’s brothers, who have been driving an international campaign for his sister’s release, will be able to speak to her on the phone after her release, Walid said, “I don’t know. We will have to wait and see. ”