The Saudi woman who was sentenced to 34 years in prison for a tweet appears to have been denounced to Saudi authorities through a crime-reporting app that users in the kingdom can download to Apple and Android phones, the Guardian has revealed.
A review of Leeds PhD student Salma al-Shehab’s tweets and interactions shows she was messaged by a person using a Saudi account on November 15, 2020 after she posted a mildly critical tweet in response to a Saudi government post about a new public transportation contract.
The user told Shehab that he had reported her on the Saudi app, which is called Kollona Amn, or We Are All Security. It is not clear whether the Saudi officials responded directly to the report, but the 34-year-old mother was arrested two months later.
Shehab’s case has been condemned by human rights groups and other pro-democracy outlets who said the draconian sentence against her was more evidence of the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s relentless crackdown on dissent.
A University of Leeds spokesperson on Wednesday said: “We are deeply concerned to learn of this recent development in Salma’s case and we are seeking advice on whether there is anything we can do to support her. Our thoughts remain with Salma, her family, and her friends among our close-knit community of postgraduate researchers.” Shehab’s research focused on improving dental treatment for patients with disabilities.
Shehab was still working on completing her PhD in the UK in December 2020 when she returned home to Saudi to visit her family. A few weeks into her visit, she was summoned to report to Saudi authorities who arrested and tried her for her use of Twitter.
Shehab had about 2,000 followers. An examination of her account’s activity shows that on 8 October 2019, Shehab responded to a tweet by a verified Saudi account that reports on developments in the kingdom’s infrastructure projects. When the account tweeted about the launch of a new network of buses, she tweeted the word “finally!”.
More than a year later, on 15 November 2020, a Saudi account with about 200 followers – which shows a man’s face and uses the name Faisal OTB – responded to her tweet with abuse. The user wrote that he had been intrigued by Shehab’s Twitter account because it displayed both the Saudi and Palestinian flags and denounced her for posting “rubbish”. The account user then said he had taken screenshots of some of Shehab’s Twitter activity and reported it on Kollona Amn – adding that he hoped she would be deported to Palestine.
Shehab’s response – which was posted shortly before she left the UK to return to Saudi – was defiant. She said in a short response that it would not be that bad to go to Palestine, where she could visit the Holy Mosque in Jerusalem and that he should do as he wished.
On official Saudi websites, Kollona Amn – which also has a Twitter account – is described as an app that allows citizens and expatriates to submit security and criminal reports related to personal life attacks, threats, impersonation, extortion, penetration of social media accounts, defamation, fraud and other criminal offences and security reports.
Israel sold $250m. of sophisticated spy systems to Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia and Israel held secret meetings which led to an estimated $250-million deal, including the transfer of Israeli espionage technologies to the kingdom, Israeli media reported on Sunday, citing an exclusive report by the United Arab Emirate news website Al-Khaleej.
Some of the spy systems, which are the most sophisticated systems Israel has ever sold to any Arab country, have already been transferred to Saudi Arabia and put into use after a Saudi technical team received training in operating them, the report added.
The exclusive report also revealed that the two countries exchanged strategic military information in the meetings, which were conducted in Washington and London through a European mediator.
Such cooperation would not be the first of its kind between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
