A Saudi court sentenced rights activist Loujain Al Hathloul to five years and eight months in prison on Monday.
The court suspended two years and 10 months of her sentence, which came about three years after her arrest in 2018. The sentence was backdated to May 2018, meaning she could be freed in a matter of months.
Al Hathloul, 31, was arrested with other activists one month before the kingdom overturned its female driving ban.
She was charged with recruiting people "in charge of sensitive government positions, providing foreign circles with money with the aim to destabilise the kingdom, breach its social structure and mar the national consistence", state media reported.
Rights groups have repeatedly called for her release.
Saudi authorities said at the time of her arrest that they had "monitored an orchestrated activity of a group of persons who dared to [breach] the country's religious and national pillars through making suspected contacts in support of the activities of foreign circles".
Al Hathloul was first arrested in 2014 after she attempted to drive into Saudi Arabia from the UAE.
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Size: 36 employees
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Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
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More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Her most famous song
Aghadan Alqak (Would I Ever Find You Again)?
Would I ever find you again
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sadness?
Would your lights ever break the night of my eyes again?
Would I ever find you again?
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This world is sky and you're the moon time,
Have mercy on the heart that belongs to you.
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
