NEW COURT TAKES OVER CASE OF JAILED SAUDI WOMEN’S RIGHTS ADVOCATE

A Saudi criminal court has transferred the case of the imprisoned women's rights fighter Loujain al-Hathloul to a special court with a "notorious" reputation, her family told Deutsche Welle (DW).

“My family has not heard from my sister since she was taken back to prison," Lina al-Hathloul said of her sibling, Loujain al-Hathloul. The prominent Saudi Arabian women's rights activist has been imprisoned for over two years. On Wednesday, her case was transferred from a criminal court to a special anti-terrorism court for "lack of jurisdiction," her family said. "Now she is facing her trial at a far more secretive court," her sister explained to DW on Friday.

Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, called the transfer "a disturbing move." She said “they transferred her case to the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC), an institution used to silence dissent and notorious for issuing lengthy prison sentences following seriously flawed trials. This is yet another sign that Saudi Arabia's claims of reform on human rights are a farce."

Loujain Al-Hathloul was arrested in May 2018, along with about a dozen other female activists, while driving a car — only weeks before Saudi Arabia lifted the ban on female drivers. The women were subsequently accused of "suspicious contact with foreign parties," providing financial support to "hostile elements abroad" and recruiting government workers, according to the Saudi authorities. While some of the detainees have been provisionally released, Al-Hathloul has remained imprisoned since her arrest. She has repeatedly told her family that she has been subjected to sexual harassment, electric shocks and waterboarding.