Freed from Prison, Saudi Activist Sees Hope in New king

Freed from her "bad dream" of three months in prison, Saudi activist Suad al-Shammari, an associate of detained blogger Raef Badawi, sees hope in the ascent to the throne of new King Salman.

But there is no immediate chance that Badawi or his detained lawyer Waleed Abulkhair can benefit from a prisoner amnesty announced by Salman, whose reign commenced on January 23 following the death of King Abdullah, Shammari said.

"Unfortunately, the king's amnesty has a number of conditions and does not include prisoners of conscience, politicians and activists," she told Agence France Presse in her first interview since her release late last week.

Badawi and Abulkhair have been nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize by Norwegian member of parliament Karin Andersen.

Shammari was arrested in late October for insulting Islam, after posting comments on Twitter about Muslim religious leaders.

Her prison conditions were worse than she expected.

"One room is meant to hold eight women maximum but sometimes there would be double that number. For two months I did not have a bed and I slept on the floor," she said from the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

Freedom is "like I woke up from a bad dream", but comes with "a pain in my heart for the rest of the peaceful prisoners of conscience," Shammari said.

Her release had nothing to do with King Salman's amnesty and followed discussions about the terms of her freedom, she added.

Among the conditions are that Shammari not attend conferences that are "against the government" or associate with "liberal internationalism", she said, adding she must also refrain from attacking state institutions.

"I have never done and will never do that. I only object to corrupt violations that affect the state, its reputation, and the dignity of its citizens".

- Peace, tolerance - 

Shammari co-founded with Badawi the Saudi Liberal Network Internet discussion group, which she said existed for about four years.

Among its goals were "spreading a culture of rights and the right to freedom of speech and expression". It also supported peace, tolerance, dialogue and the freeing of Saudi women from "male guardianship", she said.

Badawi was arrested in June 2012 under cybercrime provisions.

A judge ordered the website shut after it criticised Saudi Arabia's notorious religious police.

The network had also announced a "day of liberalism" and called for an end to the influence of religion on public life.

Badawi is serving a 10-year sentence for "insulting Islam" and was ordered to be flogged 1,000 times. He has so far received the first 50 lashings of the sentence, which sparked worldwide outrage.

A Saudi court separately convicted the activist Abulkhair last July on a series of charges including "inciting public opinion". It sentenced him to 10 years in jail with five years suspended.

In January, an appeals court ordered Abulkhair to serve the full 15 years.

Abulkhair and Badawi are two of more than a dozen "prisoners of conscience" behind bars for peaceful activism in Saudi Arabia, according to rights group Amnesty International.

The United States, Canada and the European Union are among those denouncing Badawi's sentence, but Shammari said the international furore came rather late.

"What I fear now is that they become silent again," she said.

Badawi, Abulkhair and Shammari were detained during the decade-long reign of King Abdullah, "which we consider an era of reform", yet which detained peaceful activists and violent criminals alike, Shammari said.

"So the outlook is unclear. But there is a beacon of hope, in that King Salman is the only one among his brothers that really cares and supports the media, writers and opinion-makers," she said, noting that his sons were in the media business.

"So I am optimistic and I'm holding on to hope, and time will tell."