Liberated Saudi activist vows to fight to hold her torturers to account

Uma Mishra-Newbery (above), coordinator of the Free Loujain campaign, and Loujain's sisters, Lina (left) and Alia, this Thursday during the press video conference.

The jail has not brought Loujain to the Hathloul.

The Saudi activist released on Wednesday after 1,001 days in jail will continue to demand justice: she wants to prove that she was tortured while in detention and that her torturers are punished.

This was transmitted this Thursday by his sisters, Alia and Lina, during a virtual press conference from Belgium, where they reside.

Loujain, who is on probation, is prohibited from speaking to the press.

"I was surprised that he was able to maintain optimism, he told me he missed going to the supermarket and buying an ice cream," Alia said.

“She was released yesterday [for this Wednesday] and she is a person who never complains.

He said it was fine, but I know it will take time, ”Alia said.

Later, Lina said that she hoped he would receive psychological support.

In the images that the family has spread on social networks, Loujain, 31, appears thinner and with gray hair.

"The two hunger strikes and the conditions to which she has been subjected have weakened her," admits Alia.

Loujain was first arrested in late 2014 when she tried to cross from the United Arab Emirates to Saudi Arabia, at the wheel of her own car to denounce the ban on women driving in her country.

The 73 days that she was detained made her a women's rights activist.

In May 2018, on the eve of the Kingdom of the Desert authorizing the Saudis to drive, she was arrested along with a dozen other activists without the charges being known.

According to her family and various rights organizations, Loujain and two other women suffered beatings, electric shocks and false drowning

(waterboarding)

between May and August.

“While she was in the secret jail she told us that she was fine, only months later, when our parents were able to visit her, they discovered that she had been tortured.

Yesterday I asked him about it and he said: “What did you want me to do?

He had an electrode in his ear and if he said something he would receive a shock ”, Lina said.

Following a smear campaign in which Loujain and the other activists were branded as "traitors" by the authorities and the docile Saudi media, the trial was set for March 2019, but did not begin until a year later.

So his case was transferred to the Specialized Criminal Court, which deals with terrorism and cybersecurity cases.

In parallel, the activist filed a complaint of torture.

The judge rejected his allegations on the pretext that the recordings he requested are only kept for 40 days.

He appealed and the appeals court upheld that ruling last Tuesday.

However, her sisters say she is not going to throw in the towel.

"I found her very determined to use all means, including the Saudi Arabian legal system, to achieve her rights: to be recognized that she was tortured and that her imprisonment was unjust," explained Alia.

Loujain also wants his torturers to be punished, but has only been able to identify one: Saud al Qahtani, who was one of the closest advisers to Prince Mohamed Bin Salmán, heir and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.

But Al Qahtani has disappeared from the public scene after his name appeared linked to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.

Beyond fighting to clear her name, the sisters do not venture what Loujain's next plans will be.

For now, returning to activism is out of the question, since the parole will limit his freedom for the next three years, and he will be prohibited from leaving the country for five.

It is now pending appeal.

“He has a lot of plans and big ideas, but I don't know what his priorities are going to be.

It takes time.

It's a bit early to decide what to do, "sums up Alia.

An informal ban on traveling abroad also weighs on her parents, who are Loujain's lawyers.

That is why Alia, Lina and their brother Walid (trapped in Canada because the Saudi authorities do not renew his passport) do not return to Saudi Arabia.

Being away has allowed them to campaign for their sister and they admit that international pressure, and especially the arrival of Joe Biden to the presidency of the United States, has influenced his sister being able to get out of prison after serving half of the term. penalty imposed by the court.

“Now we want true justice and for Loujain to be unconditionally released and the smear campaign to be recognized by both senior officials and the media that accused her of being a traitor.

We are not going to stop until we achieve full justice ”, they say.