Trial of 6 female activists kicks off in Riyadh: Source

RIYADH

The trial of six female rights activists kicked off in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, according to an Arabic-language Twitter account run by anonymous rights advocates.

“At this moment, the detained Saudi women -- Nouf Abdul Aziz, Maysa al-Zahrani, Amal al-Harbi, Loujain al-Hathloul, Iman al-Nafjan and Aziza al-Yousef -- are being tried,” the account asserted in a Wednesday tweet.

Devoted to covering the plight of detained Saudi female activists, the account -- which has thousands of followers -- said the defendants were being tried “in closed-door sessions of Riyadh’s Criminal Court”.

While Riyadh has yet to comment on the assertions made in the tweets, the Saudi authorities typically stress their full adherence to “the rule of law and respect for human rights”.

The six women were arrested in May of last year on charges of “harming the country’s interests”.

On March 2, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he had raised the issue of the detained activists -- who some rights groups say may have been subject to torture -- with Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir.