ALQST, a UK-based human rights group, said a Saudi court sentenced Fatima al-Shawarbi to 30 years during a recent appeal hearing.

She is in her 20s and from Al-Ahsa province, the group said.

The Saudi justice system is cloaked in secrecy, often leaving activist groups as the only sources of information about cases.

ALQST said that it relies on its contacts for information, and needed to keep their identities secret for fear of reprisals. Officials at the Saudi embassy in London did not respond to Insider's request for information

ALQST said al-Shawarbi was convicted over anonymous tweets in which she criticized Saudi Arabia's treatment of people forcibly removed from their homes to make way for the construction of the planned city.

It said she was arrested in 2020. Per the group, she also criticized Saudi Arabia's treatment of women, and called for a constitutional monarchy rather than the system of absolute rule that now exists