Saudi charges women’s activist

Saudi Arabia has charged a women's rights activist detained since November over her social media posts with launching a "propaganda campaign", according to court documents seen by AFP on Wednesday. Manahel al-Otaibi was arrested for social media posts challenging male guardianship laws and requirements for women to wear customary body-shrouding abaya. Public prosecutors accused her of leading a "campaign to incite Saudi girls to denounce religious principles and rebel against customs and traditions of Saudi society," reads the documents. She appeared in front of judges in January and was then referred to the Specialised Criminal Court which was established in 2008 to handle terrorism-related cases but has been widely used to try political dissidents and human rights activists.