Saudi women held in detention for nearly a year have been charged following contact with foreign media and activists, Human Rights Watch said Thursday, after they went on trial for undermining national security.
“After nearly a year of accusations… that these brave champions of women’s rights are ‘foreign agents’, the actual charges against them appear to be simply a list of their efforts to promote women’s rights,” said Michael Page, HRW’s Middle East deputy director.
“This is hardly the act of a government that is carrying out reforms, as (Crown Prince) Mohammed bin Salman and his supporters keep claiming.”
The trial of at least 10 women opened in Riyadh’s criminal court last week after they were detained in 2018 as part of a sweeping crackdown on activists, legal authorities said, without specifying the charges.
HRW and Amnesty International put the number of women facing trial at 11. Some of them have allegedly faced torture and sexual harassment during…
