On New Year’s Eve of the Usyk-Joshua rematch, the Saudi woman was sentenced to 34 years in prison for her tweets

By: Sean Crose

On the eve of an upcoming Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony Joshua heavyweight title rematch in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, a Saudi woman is said to have been sentenced to a long prison term for remarks she made posted on Twitter. According to the BBC, “Salma al-Shehab, 34, a Saudi citizen and mother of two, was arrested in 2021 while on holiday in the kingdom.” She has now been sentenced to 34 years in prison in Saudi Arabia. Why? Because “before the trip, she called for reform and the release of activists.” Al-Shehab’s story is gaining global attention.

Her story is also unraveling as Saudi Arabia is about to host one of the biggest sporting events of the year in Usyk-Joshua 2. All parties involved are likely to make a big splash for the money. match, scheduled for Saturday at the Superdome in Jeddah. This will be challenger Joshua’s second fight in Saudi Arabia. He regained his championship belts from Andy Ruiz in the Middle Eastern nation at the end of 2019 and is now trying to win them back again this weekend when he faces Usyk for the second time.

“I want to say thank you to everyone who made it possible for us to fight here in Saudi Arabia,” Usyk of Ukraine said at a press conference Wednesday at Jeddah’s Shangri-La hotel. “Prince Khaled, thank you very much. It’s very important to me, my team, my country and I’m really happy to be here. This is not my first time to Saudi Arabia. I feel like I will be here again and again.” Joshua, too, had warm words for the host country during the press conference. “Thank you to everyone in Saudi Arabia,” he said. “My friends, my team up front has Prince Khaled, Skill Challenge and his family as well. First of all give a shout out to everyone for taking care of us during our stay here. ”

Usyk, whose homeland of Ukraine has been bloody attacked by Russian forces since last winter, is seen as a sort of representative of his countrymen deemed to be his. Al-Sehahb, a PHD student at Britain’s Leeds University, and also described as an activist, according to the BBC, “tweeted or retweeted a number of messages calling for reform in Saudi Arabia and release famous activists, clerics. and other intellectuals. “