4 Saudi activists freed, one held as crackdown persists
Saudi authorities have released four detained activists but arrested another one, pressing ahead with a sweeping crackdown just a month before the kingdom lifts its ban on women drivers, campaigners said yesterday.
Walaa al-Shubbar, said to be in her 20s, is the latest activist to be freed after at least 11 were arrested last week, mostly identified by rights groups as veteran women campaigners for the right to drive and to end the conservative Islamic country's male guardianship system.
Campaigners including Amnesty International earlier confirmed the release of Aisha al-Mana, Hessa al-Sheikh and Madeha al-Ajroush, elderly activists well-known for being part of a group that launched the first Saudi protest movement in 1990 for the right to drive.
There was no immediate comment from Saudi officials and the terms of their release have not been made public.
Meanwhile, authorities late Thursday arrested Mohammed al-Bajadi, co-founder of the Association for Civil and Political Rights (ACPRA), one of the few independent human rights groups in Saudi Arabia, Amnesty said.
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