Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton presenting Samar Badawi with the International Women of Courage Award in 2012. (Photo: Gary Camero/Reuters)

Saudi Arabia released a well-known human rights activist from custody Wednesday morning, hours after a top U.S. State Department official criticized her arrest to Yahoo News and called for charges against her to be dropped.

Samar Badawi, who had been given an International Women of Courage Award by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2012, had been arrested in Jidda Tuesday on charges relating to her management of her imprisoned husband’s Twitter account.

The arrest was condemned by Amnesty International and other human rights groups. A top State Department official, assistant secretary for human rights Tom Malinowski, told Yahoo News that Badawi had been imprisoned for exercising her “freedom of expression” and urged her release.

Ali Al-Ahmed, a U.S.-based Saudi human rights activist and friend of Badawi, said he learned Wednesday from sources in Saudi Arabia that Badawi had been released on bail. But, he said, charges against her remain pending and are being referred to a local prosecutor’s office. “This is the way they do things — in increments,” he said. “She will be tried and sentenced. This is not over.”

Badawi’s arrest was seen as the latest sign of an intensifying Saudi crackdown against political activists and Shiite dissidents under King Salman and his increasingly influential 30-year-old son Mohammed bin Salman, who is deputy crown prince and minister of defense. One U.S. official said the Saudis’ increasingly repressive policies, including last week’s mass executions, which included a prominent Shiite cleric, appear to indicate that “the Saudi government is feeling increasingly insecure” as a result of mounting tensions with Iran and a precipitous drop in the price of oil.

Badawi was widely known as one of Saudi Arabia’s leading advocates for women’s rights, including the right to vote, a major reason she was honored by the State Department in 2012 and invited to meet with Secretary Clinton and first lady Michelle Obama.

Clinton — whose former top legislative aide at the State Department, David Adams, is now a top lobbyist for the Saudi government — criticized Badawi’s arrest in an email from her campaign to Yahoo News Tuesday night.

“Needless to say, Hillary Clinton is alarmed by the arrest of Samar Badawi, who has been a courageous champion for human rights in Saudi Arabia,” campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin wrote in an email.

