After spending three years behind bars, women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul has been released from prison in Saudi Arabia, reports The Guardian quoting her family. “Loujain at home after 1001 days in prison,” her sister Lina tweeted. The pro-government media branded Hathloul and other jailed activists as “traitors” and her family alleges she faced sexual harassment and torture, including electric shocks and waterboarding, in detention.

Hathloul also accused former royal court media advisor Saud al-Qahtani of threatening to rape and kill her, according to her family.

In May 2018, 31-year-old Hathloul was detained and sentenced in December to nearly six years in prison. Hathloul was detained weeks before the historic lifting of the decades-old driving ban, along with several prominent women campaigners on the charge of “attempting to destabilise the kingdom”.

The 31-year-old activist campaigned to make women driving a car legal and end kingdom’s notorious guardianship system, which requires women to get permission from male relatives for many decisions.

She is a graduate of the Canadian University of British Columbia. 

Hathloul, who became a major social media personality, had also been jailed in 2014.

Saudi authorities put her in juvenile detention when she tried to drive into the kingdom from the neighbouring United Arab Emirates.

She was freed 73 days later following an international campaign.

Her latest release comes after she was sentenced in December to nearly six years in prison for terrorism-related crimes, but with part of the sentence suspended.