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Riyadh (dpa) - More than two and a half years after her arrest, the prominent women's rights activist Ludschain al-Hathlul was released from prison in Saudi Arabia.
"Ludschain is at home !!!!!!", wrote her sister Lina on Twitter on Wednesday.
To do this, she published a picture that shows the 31-year-old on a video call.
According to her family, Ludschain al-Hathlul spent 1001 days in prison.
She became known in particular through a campaign to end the driving ban for women.
However, the activist is not yet completely free.
They have a three-year suspended sentence.
According to her supporters, this means that she can be arrested for any act that is perceived as illegal.
In addition, a travel ban of five years comes into force.
A court specializing in terrorism offenses had sentenced her to five years and eight months in prison in December and suspended half of them.
Al-Hathlul has appealed.
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The 31-year-old is one of the most internationally known activists in the strictly Islamic monarchy.
She was arrested in May 2018, just before the women's driving ban was lifted.
The prosecutor had demanded the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
According to her family, Al-Hathlul was tortured while in detention.
The government denies this.
The human rights organization Amnesty International described Al-Hathlul as the "face of courage" and "unwavering faith in justice".
Because of the travel ban and the suspended sentence, however, she was "pushed to silence," wrote Kenneth Roth, director of the human rights organization Human Rights Watch.
Lina al-Hathlul had also urged that her sister's release from prison not be called “freedom”.
During her time in captivity, Ludschain al-Hathul became one of the most famous figures in the fight for women's and human rights in Saudi Arabia.
Born in the coastal city of Jeddah, she studied French literature in Canada and applied for a degree in applied social research at the Sorbonne University in Abu Dhabi.
Her husband divorced - according to the family, for unclear reasons.
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The chairman of the human rights committee in the Bundestag, Gyde Jensen, spoke of a "huge relief".
Al-Hathlul should never have been jailed, according to the FDP politician.
She was tortured at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, imprisoned under the most adverse conditions and unlawfully convicted in a show trial.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210210-99-386794 / 2
Lina al-Hathlul on Twitter
Ludschain al-Hathlul