Saudi authorities have freed Salma al-Shehab after completing her sentence over tweets criticising the government, rights groups said, marking the latest such release of an activist in recent months.

“Saudi PhD student Salma al-Shehab has now been released from prison!” the London-based ALQST for Human Rights said in a post on X on Monday.

“This follows over four years of arbitrary imprisonment on the basis of her peaceful activism,” it said, adding: “Her full freedom must now be granted, including the right to travel to complete her studies” at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.

Sanad, another London-based rights group, confirmed her release, saying “Saudi authorities have released human rights activist Salma al-Shehab after more than four years of arbitrary detention”.

It said she had been arrested “for tweets in which she called for reform and the release of prisoners of conscience”.

Shehab, a mother of two, was sentenced to six years in prison for aiding “those who seek to disturb public order”.

After appealing the sentence, another court increased her jail time to 34 years, before that was commuted to 27 years then to four, with a subsequent travel ban.

Shehab, a member of Saudi Arabia’s Shiite Muslim minority, frequently posted in support of women’s rights in the conservative kingdom to her audience of about 2,600 followers on X.

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ALQST’s Lina al-Hathloul told AFP Shehab “went through a difficult experience in detention and did not see her young children throughout the period of her imprisonment”.

She added that Shehab had been on hunger strike in March 2023 for several weeks to demand healthcare in prison.

“Her release is the furthest thing from freedom as living under a travel ban means living under the threat of arrest,” Hathloul said.

Saudi Arabia has in recent years granted more rights to women, such as the right to drive and travel without a male guardian.

The kingdom is nonetheless frequently criticised for human rights violations, most notably the repression of dissidents and feminist activists.

Several activists have received lengthy prison sentences in recent years, such as Manal al-Otaibi, a feminist jailed for 11 years, and Nourah al-Qahtani, who is serving a staggering 45-year sentence, also largely over social media posts.

Since December, Saudi authorities have released a number of figures, notably including renowned rights defender Mohammed al-Qahtani over two years after his sentence was supposed to end in November 2022.

Also released were university student Malik al-Ahmed and preacher Mohammed al-Habdan, who were apprehended during a wide crackdown in September 2017.