Saudi women’s activist al-Hathloul freed

Loujain al-Hathloul, 31, the high-profile campaigner for women's rights in Saudi Arabia, has been released after serving nearly three years in prison. Her treatment by the kingdom’s authorities drew international condemnation

“Loujain is at home!!!!!!” Hathloul’s sister Lina tweeted after her release


2013: Loujain al-Hathloul rises to prominence campaigning to end ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia

2014: Arrested for first time while attempting to drive across border from UAE to Saudi Arabia – spends 73 days in women’s detention facility

2015: Barred from standing for municipal elections – first vote in Saudi Arabia to include women

2016: Signs petition along with 14,000 others to King Salman asking for male guardianship system to be abolished

Mar 2018: Arrested in UAE and flown to Riyadh where she is held under house arrest

May: Hathloul detained along with about a dozen other women’s rights activists, just weeks before ban on female drivers is lifted

2019: Hathloul and ten other women put on trial at criminal court
 
Oct 2020: Starts hunger strike to protest against conditions of detention
  
Nov: Case transferred from regular criminal court to special terrorism court
 
Dec 28: Sentenced to nearly six years in prison after being charged with incitement to change Saudi political system and harming national security
  
Feb 9, 2021: Saudi appeals court rejects Hathloul’s claim that she was tortured in jail, citing lack of evidence, her family says
    
Feb 10: Hathloul released after 1,001 days behind bars. Five-year travel ban and three years of probation imposed
  

Sources: Reuters, BBC, AP 
Picture: Getty Images 
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