Saudi women jailed for Twitter use should be freed: UN panel

DUBAI, July 08 (AFP): Two Saudi women sentenced to decades in prison over social media use have been held arbitrarily and should be released, according to UN expert findings seen Saturday by AFP.

The lengthy jail terms handed down last year to Salma al-Shehab and Nourah al-Qahtani, primarily over Twitter posts criticising the government, have heightened global scrutiny of repression under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is trying to rebrand the Gulf kingdom as open for business and tourism.

In a report dated June 19 and shared with AFP, the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, an independent expert panel, determined the women had been held arbitrarily and that "the appropriate remedy would be to release" them.