Loujain al-Hathloul, Saudi women’s rights activist, released from prison

“We’re excited (about her release), but the fight for justice is not over yet,” Hathloul’s brother, Walid al-Hathloul, told CNN before the announcement. “We would have to work very hard to secure justice for Loujain, but we’re very delighted for this news.”

The family has urged people to refrain from saying that Hathloul has been “freed.”

“Any release that does not include an independent investigation of the charges, does not include lifting the travel ban, does not include dropping the charges, is not freedom,” said Walid al-Hathloul. “Therefore we’re far away from justice.”

The terrorism court convicted Hathloul on charges of harming national security, seeking to change the Saudi political system, and using her relations with foreign governments and rights groups to “pressure the Kingdom to change its laws and systems,” according to a charge sheet her family published earlier in December.

UN experts called the charges “spurious.” In a six-page charge sheet for Hathloul’s case, seen by CNN, a section entitled “crimes committed” includes activism against the kingdom’s restrictive male guardianship laws, along with contact with foreign journalists and diplomats.

The charges also relied on a series of alleged confessions, according to the documents, which state that Hathloul admitted to applying for a job at the UN along with confessing to being in contact with the human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

For much of her imprisonment, Hathloul detailed her hardships to her parents during their prison visits. Those allegations were later made public by three of her siblings who live outside the kingdom, and were corroborated by the court testimony of other female activists.

Hathloul said she was sexually assaulted and tortured while in detention, including waterboarding, flogging and electrocution, according to multiple statements released by her family and supporters.

Saudi authorities have repeatedly denied allegations of torture and sexual abuse in their prisons.

Hathloul has twice gone on hunger strike — in protest at her prison conditions, and because she was denied communication with her relatives — according to her family.

A 2019 American Bar Association Center for Human Rights report said that although the Saudi terrorism court was created in 2008 to prosecute terrorism detainees, its “caseload was quickly expanded from alleged violent extremists to include political dissidents, religious minorities and human rights activists.” The report concluded that the court “routinely convicts individuals of terrorism charges without any meaningful evidence.”

Earlier this week, a Saudi appeals court rejected Hathloul’s torture claims, the family said on Twitter.

During her detention, Hathloul received multiple awards, including the 2019 PEN America award. Three other women’s rights activists who were arrested alongside Hathloul — Nassima al-Sada, Nouf Abdulaziz and Maya’a al-Zahrani — remain in detention, according Amnesty International. Sada and Abdulaziz are also PEN America award recipients.

Asked if Hathloul’s siblings, who have been a driving force behind an international campaign for their sister’s release, will be able to speak to her on the phone after her release from detention, Walid said: “I don’t know. We’re going to have to wait and see.”