Trial of prominent Saudi woman activist to start this week

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019...oman-activist-start-week-190311063636258.html


Trial of prominent Saudi woman activist to start this week
Loujain al-Hathloul is among a dozen women's rights activists jailed since last year amid allegations of torture.
16 hours ago

Trial of prominent Saudi woman activist to start this week

Loujain al-Hathloul is among a dozen women's rights activists jailed since last year amid allegations of torture.
16 hours ago

The trial of Loujain al-Hathloul, one of nearly a dozen prominent Saudi Arabian women's rights activists jailed since last year, will begin on Wednesday, her family has said.

Dozens of other activists, intellectuals and clerics have been arrested separately in the past two years in an apparent bid to stamp out opposition to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has consolidated power, including through a sweeping anti-corruption campaign.

"My sister @LoujainHathloul will be having her first trial session next Wednesday at 8am at the specialised court in Riyadh. This is the court [that] deals with terrorism cases," her brother Walid wrote on Sunday on Twitter.

He said she was not allowed to have a lawyer and had not been provided with a list of indictments.

The public prosecutor said last June that five men and four women had been arrested and held on suspicion of harming the country's interests and offering support to hostile elements abroad. Saudi media widely denounced them as traitors.

It was unclear if the other detainees will also stand trial this week.
Jailed women's rights activists to face trial in Saudi Arabia (1:51)

Electric shocks, flogging

Activists claim some detainees, including 29-year-old Hathloul, were held in solitary confinement and subjected to mistreatment and torture, including electric shocks, flogging, and sexual assault. Saudi officials have denied those allegations as "false"...

 

[Shiloh]

Source: https://news.yahoo.com/saudi-women-activists-trial-detention-150605397.html

Saudi women activists on trial after a year in detention
[AFP]
Anuj Chopra
,AFP?March 14, 2019

Riyadh (AFP) - Ten Saudi women appeared in court Wednesday for the first time since being detained last year in a sweeping crackdown on activists, ratcheting up scrutiny of the kingdom's human rights record.

The trial of the women, who have been held for nearly a year without charge, comes as Saudi Arabia seeks to placate international criticism over last year's brutal murder of insider-turned-critic Jamal Khashoggi.

Prominent activists Loujain al-Hathloul, Hatoon al-Fassi, Aziza al-Yousef and Eman al-Nafjan were among those who attended Riyadh's criminal court, where they heard the charges against them, court president Ibrahim al-Sayari said.

Family members of the women -- some of whom allegedly faced torture and sexual harassment during interrogation -- were permitted to attend the court session, but a group of around two dozen foreign journalists and Western diplomats were barred from entering.

Visibly distressed relatives huddled together outside the courtroom, clutching handwritten appeals for the judge as they waited their turn to see the detainees inside.

The charges against the women were not disclosed to the public...