Release of the Tunisian Nurse Mahdiya Al-Marzouki

Saudi authorities have released Tunisian nurse Mahdiya Al-Marzouki after she spent three years in Saudi prisons. Human rights sources stated that Al-Marzouki arrived in Tunisia yesterday, August 31, following her deportation by the Saudi government after her release.

Mahdiya Al-Marzouki was arrested in July 2020 due to her activity on social media accounts, which involved retweeting and posting, even though she had no more than 90 followers. The Specialized Criminal Court sentenced her to 15 years in prison in September 2022. Subsequently, Al-Marzouki went on a hunger strike in late January to protest the Saudi authorities’ refusal to allow her to meet with the social attaché at the Tunisian Embassy in Riyadh.

It is worth noting that Al-Marzouki was born in October 1971 and has been working in the nursing field in Saudi Arabia since 2008. For its part, SANAD organisation congratulated Mahdiya Al-Marzouki on her release by the Saudi authorities and called for her to be compensated for what she endured in Saudi prisons.