A researcher at Leeds University, Salma al-Shehab, has been sentenced to 34 years in prison for spreading “rumors” and retweeting dissidents on social media. Saudi Arabia is known for its harsh punishments under Islamic Sharia law, but this sentence has shocked even those familiar with the kingdom’s draconian laws. It appears that the Saudi Sharia-based system has moved into the Internet age with grotesque sentences applied to retweets. Al-Shehab was originally given six years but, when she appealed, a national security court increased her punishment to 34 years.
The doctoral student and mother to two was arrested while visiting Saudi Arabia as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s crackdown on dissent. This case was pending when President Joe Biden came to Saudi Arabia and fist bumped the man who also murdered U.S. journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. Biden went to the Kingdom to ask for more oil.
Al-Shehab was jailed for over 285 days before her case was even referred to court. She is a Shiite and has protested the treatment of the minority Shia population in the Sunni Kingdom.
She was accused of “disturbing public order” and “destabilizing the social fabric” by following and retweeting dissident accounts on Twitter and spreading “false rumors.”
A special court for terrorism and national security crimes not only sentenced her to 34 years in prison but imposed an additional 34-year travel ban.
Her account only had 2,000 followers, including apparently the Saudi security services.
Yeah, we totally want do be dependent on mid-east oil. I’m old enough to remember when we were energy exporters. Which makes me close to two years old.
Truth be told, I’d care more about this story if the USA were currently being governed by men and women who behaved better than the rulers of the Kingdom of Saud. With that being said, at least the Saudi government is enforcing its laws, unlike the Biden regime who leaves the US southern border wide-open to the worse beasts humanity is capable of producing.
That Mow Hominid is a nice fella !
It’s true, islamsucks.
Khashoggi and Salma al-Shehab were remarkably dumb thinking they could travel to Saudi Arabia or enter their embassy without repercussions.
Only 285 days to get a trial is actually better than our Jan. 6 detainees. The sentence is extreme but it is just the opposite of the extreme we have here in this country where almost nobody is charged with a serious crime unless they are politically unpopular. The world is upside down.
‘Politically unpopular’ in today’s parlance simply means ‘conservative’.
Given Dementia Joe’s penchant for fascist tactics here in the US, is it a surprise that the victims of these tactics in the Saudi kingdom go unnoticed?
Yeah…what GOLD HAT SAID!!
Freedom of speech stops at the shoreline. Anyone who posts anything on social media should never travel to the dictator countries (Saudi Arabia, china, Russia, North Korea). Nothing good will come of it. Just ask those who were detained.
RE:”Freedom of speech stops at the shoreline…” Well writ and seconded. Unfortunately, there’s no vaccine for ‘stupid’.
Yep, Islam & Islamic countries are enemies of free speech. To a lesser extent so are European courts. Take the case of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff where even truth was held as not an excuse.
European Court upholds conviction of woman who questioned Muhammad’s marriage to 6-year-old girl
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/european-court-upholds-conviction-of-woman-who-condemned-muhammads-marriage-to-6-year-old/
Shoot, I’m scared to go to Canada
Thanks
Professor Turley does not mention it, so I will. The Deep State right here in America is emulating the Saudi model of “justice” and will, in time, make the Saudis’ current scheme seem like a benevolent civilization. Who could have imagined just a few short years ago that a patriot, Ashli Babbitt, exercising her First Amendment Rights, would receive a public execution for her thought crimes? Or that Guy Reffitt, another patriot, would be sentenced to prison for seven years merely because he favored a political candidate opposed by the Deep State? Yet, there’s a big differrence. The Saudis, at least, are transparent about what conduct they deem acceptable to the government and what is to be punished. But the US pretends that it champions civil rights, when the opposite is true.
If she had remained in England, she would not now be in prison, correct?
The American Founders believed that rights and freedoms are natural and God-given. God is universal. Rights and freedoms are universal. The Constitution is universal.
All people must be provided the universal, natural and God-given rights and freedoms enumerated in, and omitted from, the Constitution of the United States. Every configuration of government in every land must not deny all natural and God-given rights and freedoms, lest those governments persist as iniquitous, adscititious, invalid, illegitimate and despotic.
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“[John] Locke wrote that all individuals are equal in the sense that they are born with certain ‘inalienable’ natural rights. That is, rights that are God-given and can never be taken or even given away. Among these fundamental natural rights, Locke said, are ‘life, liberty, and property.'”
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“Locke also argued that individuals should be free to make choices about how to conduct their own lives as long as they do not interfere with the liberty of others. Locke therefore believed liberty should be far-reaching.
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“The purpose of government, Locke wrote, is to secure and protect the God-given inalienable natural rights of the people.
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“But, Locke concluded, if a government persecutes its people with “a long train of abuses” over an extended period, the people have the right to resist that government, alter or abolish it, and create a new political system.
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“[Thomas] Jefferson adopted John Locke’s theory of natural rights to provide a reason for revolution. He then went on to offer proof that revolution was necessary in 1776 to end King George’s tyranny over the colonists.”
– Constitutional Rights Foundation
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Government exists, under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, to provide maximal freedom to individuals while government is severely limited and restricted to merely facilitating that maximal freedom of individuals through the provision of security and infrastructure.
Article 1, Section 8, provides Congress the power to tax for ONLY debt, defense and “…general Welfare…” (i.e. All Well Advance), omitting and, thereby, excluding any power to tax for individual welfare, specific welfare, particular welfare, favor or charity. The same article enumerates and provides Congress the power to regulate ONLY money, the “flow” of commerce, and land and naval Forces. Additionally, the 5th Amendment right to private property is not qualified by the Constitution and is, therefore, absolute, allowing Congress no power to claim or exercise dominion over private property, the sole exception being the power to “take” private property for public use. If the right to private property is not absolute, there is no private property, and all property is public – a Marxist principle.
The entire communistic American welfare state is unconstitutional including, but not limited to, matriculation affirmative action, grade-inflation affirmative action, employment affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, minimum wage, rent control, social services, forced busing, public housing, utility subsidies, WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, HHS, HUD, EPA, Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc.
This is what Ron DeSantis would be doing if he had his druthers. He is heading in that direction of censoring political opposition with his “Stop Woke” act.
RE:”This is what Ron DeSantis would be doing..” What DeSantis IS doing brought nearly 250K new residents to Florida in the past 12 months and more every week. They’re leaving the woke on others to choke. Florida families want to mould the precious clay of their children themselves, not leave the sculpting to the likes of a Disney’s ‘creator’ who gleefully proclaimed that now she felt comfortable putting as much ‘queer’ into her work as she could.
I hope DeSantis does NOT run for President. Let him stay in Florida to continue to grow the state as a sanctuary of freedom and reason. Also, when Civil War 2.0 arrives, Florida will be the destination for us. That is the place to be when it all comes crumbling down. Plus, Romney thinks Trump will get the RNC nomination if he runs, which appears likely. That will ensure Armageddon. The rockets red glare should be lovely from the Sunshine State
https://www.deseret.com/utah/2022/8/18/23310635/mitt-romney-about-liz-cheney-for-president
As he has in the past, Romney said Trump would almost certainly win the GOP nomination if he runs in 2024. And if it’s not Trump, it would likely be someone like him.
“I don’t think someone who is seen outside the Trump circle would have any realistic chance of becoming the nominee in 2024, barring something I can’t foresee at this stage,” he said. “If he doesn’t run again, I think it’ll be people who either were supporters of his or people who didn’t say much about him and then would be open to become the nominee.”
What Romney is really admitting is that Trump is the overwhelming favorite of the rank and file of the Republican Party.
He’s admitting it but he doesn’t agree with it. Romney has a better fit in the Democrat Party.
Loma
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Merriam-Webster
loma noun (1)
lo·ma | \ ˈlōmə \
chiefly Southwest
: a broad-topped hill
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Who would not love a hill topped with broads?
But what if they are trans , binary or whatever flavor of the day outside normal…who would want that hill !.
Dear lord your partisan vomit is sick. Senile joey B et al ARE DOING this…and you have the squirrel nuts to invoke a good man when we are led by a bad man. Stick to be a woke tool…it’s for good sheeple like you.
I do not believe by any stretch of the imagination that Joe Biden’s relationship with MBS is anywhere nearly as close as that of Trump and Kushner to MBS.
RE:”I do not believe by any stretch of the imagination that Joe Biden’s relationship with MBS is anywhere nearly as close as that of Trump and Kushner to MBS: An in depth, detailed review of United States geopolitical policies since the discovery of oil on the Arabian peninsula and the Middle East, in general, across the past 100 years should lead one to the understanding that who was close to who, and when, and for what purposes, was a sail set according to the prevailing winds. Had we maintained the level of energy independence established by the previous administration, we might not be having this conversation. Just say’in. YMMV.
BIDEN, MBS AND DEMOCRATS
Why not just ignore the democrats, turn the region into glass and take the oil?
Orders from God at inception: Chase down everything you can and eat it.
See? It’s simple.
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“[Democrats], to god-damned hell with [democrats]! We have no [democrats]. In fact, we don’t need [democrats]. I don’t have to show you any stinking [democrats], you god-damned cabrón and chinga tu madre!”
– Gold Hat, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1927)
Consider getting your believer fixed.
RE:”Consider getting your believer fixed.” Please do enlighten us with incontrovertible facts to give weight to your statement. What have we seen in the diplomatic activities of Biden with respect to the Saudi’s that confirms your words. Tiresome are the hopeful suppositions that pass for truth.
Moral outrage is understandable and expected, but I have not seen a legal analysis of the law and the evidence. How questionable was the application of the existing law?
Article 19