Friday, December 26, 2014
Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates
Two Saudi women detained for nearly a month in defiance of a ban on females driving were referred Thursday to a court established to try terrorism cases, several people close to the defendants said.
The cases of the two, Loujain al-Hathloul and Maysa al-Amoudi, were sent to the anti-terrorism court in connection to opinions they expressed in tweets and in social media, four people close to the two women told The Associated Press.
They did not elaborate on the specific charges or what the opinions were. Both women have spoken out online against the female driving ban. Activists say they fear the case is intended to send a warning to others pushing for greater rights. The four people spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of government reprisals.
The Specialized Criminal Court, to which their cases were referred, was established in the capital Riyadh to try terrorism cases but also has tried and handed long prison sentences to a number of human-rights workers, peaceful dissidents, activists and critics of the government. For example, this year it sentenced a revered Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a vocal critic of the government, to death for sedition and sentenced a prominent human-rights lawyer, Waleed Abul-Khair, to 15 years in prison on charges of inciting public opinion.
Human Rights Watch recently warned that “Saudi authorities are ramping up their crackdown on people who peacefully criticize the government on the Internet.” It said that judges and prosecutors are using “vague provisions of a 2007 anti- cybercrime law to charge and try Saudi citizens for peaceful tweets and social media comments.”
This was the first time women drivers have been referred to the court, activists said.