Biden’s national security adviser criticizes Saudi Arabia for jailing women’s rights activist
Jake Sullivan called the sentencing of activist Loujain al-Hathloul "troubling."
President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for US national security adviser publicly criticized Saudi Arabia’s sentencing of a prominent women’s rights activist this week.
“Saudi Arabia’s sentencing of Loujain al-Hathloul for simply exercising her universal rights is unjust and troubling. As we have said, the Biden-Harris administration will stand up against human rights violations wherever they occur,” Jake Sullivan tweeted Monday.
Hathloul was sentenced Monday to more than five years in prison under counterterrorism laws for supposedly conspiring against Saudi Arabia. She and other women’s rights activists were arrested in 2018; rights groups say she was tortured amid a crackdown on dissent in the kingdom by Crown Price Mohammed bin Salman.
Hathloul’s activism has included calling for repeal of male guardianship laws and the right of women to drive in the kingdom in recent years.
