Main content

Saudi woman jailed for 45 years for social media use

Saudi Arabian woman Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani has been sentenced to 45 years in prison over social media use. This is an unprecedented length of sentence, and comes just weeks after Salma al-Shehab was given a 34-year prison sentence over tweets critical of the government.

Few details are known about the circumstances of Qahtani's arrest or even Qahtani herself. Documents obtained by human rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) show that Qahtani was convicted for "using the internet to tear the social fabric". Abdullah Alaoudh, research director for Saudi Arabia at Dawn, gives his analysis of the case.

(Photo: Twitter logo on a phone screen Credit: Getty Images)

Release date:

Duration:

4 minutes