Loujain al-Hathloul

After her release, al-Hathloul was subject to a judicial travel ban scheduled to expire in November 2023. Human rights organisations and her family reported that she subsequently remained unable to leave the kingdom without being notified of a new legal basis. This de facto restriction was still documented in 2025, and no reliable source consulted by 19 August 2026 established that it had been lifted.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Protagonist is the victim

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist is the victim

Al-Hathloul brought a US action against DarkMatter and three former American intelligence contractors, maintaining that her iPhone had been hacked under Project Raven to track her communications and movements, and that the data collected had contributed to her arrest. In August 2025, a federal judge refused to dismiss the amended action on its main hacking claims, allowing the case to proceed.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Protagonist is the victim

Loujain al-Hathloul, a prominent campaigner for women's right to drive and against the male guardianship system, was arrested in 2018 and subsequently tried by a specialised court. In December 2020, she was sentenced to five years and eight months' imprisonment, part of which was suspended; the decision was upheld on appeal in 2021 before her conditional release.

Al-Hathloul's family and human rights organisations alleged that she had been subjected to electric shocks, waterboarding, beatings and sexual assault while detained. A Saudi court dismissed her complaint for lack of sufficient evidence, according to the reported judgment.

Attribution

Protagonist is the victim

In March 2018, while studying in the United Arab Emirates, al-Hathloul was arrested by Emirati authorities and forcibly returned by aircraft to Riyadh, according to Reuters and human rights organisations. She was then kept under restrictions in Saudi Arabia before the major arrest campaign of May 2018.

State of the evidence

Reported by the press

Attribution

Protagonist is the victim

In June 2017, Loujain al-Hathloul was again detained by Saudi authorities. Amnesty International described the episode as an attempt to silence her campaigning for women's right to drive and other reforms.

State of the evidence

Documented

Loujain al-Hathloul was arrested in 2014 when she attempted to enter Saudi Arabia by car from the UAE with a valid Emirati licence, defying the then-existing ban on women driving. She spent 73 days in detention. This episode, several years before the 2018 case, helped make her an international figure in the Women to Drive campaign.

Attribution

Directly implicated

During the first Saudi municipal elections open to women as voters and candidates, al-Hathloul sought to stand in Riyadh. She denounced the omission of her name from the candidate list despite, according to published reports, a decision by the appeals committee ordering her inclusion.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated