Saudi Arabia temporarily releases three women activists

Three out of 11 prominent Saudi Women activists arrested over nine months ago were temporarily released on Thursday, state news agency SPA said, and the rest were set to be freed on Sunday.

Saudi rights group Alqst identified the three released Women as blogger Eman al-Nafjan, academic Aziza al-Yousef, who is in her 60s, and Ruqayya al-Mohareb, a conservative preacher detained in an earlier crackdown on dissent in recent years.

The trial of the 11 activists resumed in Riyadh on Wednesday.

Some of the Women told a Riyadh court on Wednesday they had been subjected to torture in detention, including electric shocks, flogging, and sexual assault, sources familiar with the matter said. The Saudi public prosecutor denied those allegations, calling them false.

It remains to be seen if Riyadh will give the Women acquittals or pardons or pursue harsh sentences after state-backed media described them as traitors.

"The court indicated that the temporary release was decided after it studied their requests submitted during the trial sessions," SPA said.

It said the court would continue to look into their cases and that the release was conditional on their attendance at their trials until a final decision is reached.

Call for unconditional release

The detentions occurred weeks before a ban on Women driving cars in the conservative kingdom was lifted as part of efforts to relax social rules and boost the economy.

Activists and diplomats have speculated that the arrests may have been meant as a message to activists not to push demands out of sync with the government's own agenda. But Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has denied that, accusing the Women of working for Qatari and Iranian intelligence.

Critics have said the case reveals the limits of the crown prince's promises to modernize Saudi Arabia.

Three dozen countries, including all 28 EU members, Canada and Australia, have called on Riyadh to free the activists. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and his U.S. counterpart both raised the issue during recent visits to the kingdom.

(Cover: Demonstrators hold placards outside the Saudi Arabian embassy on International Women's Day to urge Saudi authorities to release jailed Women's rights activists Loujain al-Hathloul, Eman al-Nafjan and Aziza al-Yousef, Paris, March 8, 2019. /VCG Photo)