The family of Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul said Thursday US President Joe Biden’s election win helped secure her release after nearly three years’ imprisonment, but cautioned she was still far from free. Hathloul, 31, was provisionally released by Saudi authorities on Wednesday. She was detained in May 2018 with about a dozen other women activists, just weeks before the kingdom’s historic lifting of a decades-long ban on female drivers — a reform they had long campaigned for.
“I would say thank you Mr President that you helped my sister to be released,” Alia al-Hathloul told a virtual press conference. “It’s a fact that Loujain was imprisoned during the previous administration, and she was released a few days after Biden’s arrival to power.
“Biden’s arrival helped and contributed a lot in my sister’s release.”
Saudi Arabia, which has detained hundreds of activists, clerics as well as royal family members over the past three years, abruptly accelerated some political trials –…