Jailed Saudi women’s activist Loujain al-Hathloul released after 1,002 days in prison, sister says

Loujain al-Hathloul was detained for her activism

Credit: AFP

Jailed Saudi rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul was released from prison on Wednesday, her sister said, more than 1,000 days after she was first detained on charges related to her demanding the right for women to drive.

“Loujain is at home,” her sister Lina tweeted on Wednesday evening, sharing a screengrab of the two smiling widely during a video call.

Ms Hathloul, 31, was arrested with a dozen other women’s rights campaigners in 2018, weeks before Saudi Arabian authorities lifted a decades old motoring ban for women in the kingdom.

Those detained alongside her have long since been freed but in December a judge in a Riyadh terrorism court sentenced Ms Hathloul to five years and eight months in what rights groups called a “deeply flawed” trial. Charges against her included trying to change the Saudi political system, conspiring with foreign governments and harming national security.