A mother of five in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to 45 years behind bars for Twitter posts that were critical of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Saudi leadership. Noura al-Qahtani, 49, was convicted of using social media to “spread lies through tweets,” The Guardian reports, citing a Saudi court document. Qahtani, who reportedly suffers from health issues, reportedly never even took part in any political activity, but was accused of using two anonymous Twitter accounts to “besmirch” the crown prince and express “support” for dissidents. She was also charged with “insulting” state symbols, expressing support for the release of political detainees, and “destroying and hiding” the phone authorities claimed was used for such activities. The sentence, which comes just weeks after another Saudi mother and student, Salma el-Shehab, got 34 years for critical retweets, appears to fly in the face of the image painted by Saudi leadership of the crown prince acting as a “reformer” for women’s rights.
