The women are among 11 on trial on charges that include sharing information with foreign journalists and human rights groups.
By Kareem Fahim Kareem Fahim Istanbul bureau chief covering the Middle East Email Bio Follow March 28 at 2:15 PM ISTANBUL — Saudi Arabia on Thursday provisionally released three women who are standing trial on charges largely related to their human rights activism, the state news agency reported.
Yousef and Nafjan are among 11 women on trial in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, on charges that include communicating with foreign journalists and overseas human rights groups. The third woman released Thursday was Rokaya al-Mohareb, a professor and conservative Muslim activist. Her inclusion in the trial had puzzled some Saudi feminists who said Mohareb was not active in the women’s rights movement.
After the arrests, Saudi officials accused the women of grave crimes, including colluding with foreign governments hostile to Saudi Arabia. Government-friendly news outlets labeled the women “traitors.” Prosecutors “accuse the women of sharing information about women’s rights in Saudi Arabia with journalists based in Saudi Arabia, diplomats, and international human rights organizations,” the group said, adding that such contacts had been deemed “a criminal offense.”The decision to release some of the women came a day after the defendants appeared in a court in Riyadh during a second hearing in their case and petitioned for their temporary release.
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