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Who is Loujain al-Hathloul? Saudi activist forced to perform sex acts on interrogators in prison, says report

Loujain al-Hathloul, who was arrested in 2018 after she pushed to end a ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia, was released by the kingdom

Saudi Arabia released a prominent political activist from prison on Wednesday after she served nearly three years on charges that brought global scrutiny over the kingdom's human rights record. Loujain al-Hathloul was arrested in 2018 after she pushed to end a ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia. Last December, she was sentenced to almost six years in prison under a broad counterterrorism law, the Daily Mail reported.

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Loujain was one of several women's rights activists who were allegedly forced to kiss and perform sex acts on their interrogators in jails in Saudi Arabia, according to a report by human rights lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy. The report claimed the detainees were also made to watch pornography, threatened with rape, hung from a ceiling, beaten, and electrocuted during treatment which "amounted to torture." Loujain, who was held for 1001 days -- many of them in solitary confinement -- was reportedly accused of crimes such as agitating for change, using the internet to cause disorder, and pursuing a foreign agenda.

"Loujain is at home!!!!!!" her sister Lina al-Hathloul announced on Twitter alongside a screenshot showing Loujain on a family video call.

Saudi authorities are yet to comment on her release. According to the report, Loujain's silence over her prison ordeal is part of her freedom agreement. Earlier this year, a judge suspended two years and 10 months of her sentence and gave her credit for time already served -- thereby fixing her release date for sometime in March. However, the early release comes as Saudi Arabia faces new scrutiny from the United States, especially after President Joe Biden has promised to re-evaluate international relations to uphold human rights and democratic principles. "I have some welcome news that the Saudi government has released a prominent human rights activist," Biden said in a speech at the Pentagon. "She was a powerful activist for women's rights and releasing her was the right thing to do."

Loujain will remain free under strict conditions, according to her family. This includes three years of probation and a five-year travel ban. "Loujain is at home, but she is not free. The fight is not over," her sister Lina tweeted. "I am not fully happy without the release of all political prisoners."

Loujain's release was applauded by many human rights activists, albeit some ridiculed the remaining restrictions on her freedom. "If she is not allowed to leave Saudi Arabia, or is forced to remain on probation, there is no reason to believe she will not be arrested again or forced to remain subject to her country's draconian laws that prevent her from speaking out and demanding her basic rights," said Abdullah Alaoudh, Gulf research director at Democracy for the Arab World Now.

Loujain al-Hathloul shot to prominence in Saudi Arabia after she criticized the kingdom's guardianship system that prevented women from traveling without a male relative. The 31-year-old activist came under scrutiny for her outspokenness on human rights issues and was first detained in 2014 for 70 days. At the time, she had posted a video online of herself attempting to drive from the United Arab Emirates to the kingdom in a brazen act of defiance.

Loujain reportedly launched several hunger strikes from behind bars to protest living conditions in the prison, and joined a number of female political activists in testifying that she was tortured and sexually assaulted by masked men during interrogations. According to the Daily Mail, some women reported they were caned, electrocuted, and waterboarded, while others said they were groped and threatened with rape. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia, however, denies that any of the inmates were mistreated.