Saudi women's activist and blogger Suad al-Shammari released

Suad al-Shammari, who co-founded the online Saudi Liberal Network with blogger-activist Raef Badawi, was released on Sunday after three months in prison.

Shammari had spent around 90 days at a women's prison in Jeddah - but was never formally indicted or put on trial. She was freed after signing a pledge "to reduce her activities", her daughter, Sarah al-Rimaly, told AFP.

Rimaly said her mother had been "suffering from a lack of nutrients" because of her prison diet, but was generally fine.

Shammari was arrested on 28 October for "insulting Islam" a year earlier. Saudi authorities claimed her tweets "were inciting Saudi Arabian women to rebel against the guardianship system and were mocking religious texts and religious authorities", human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement, urging action at the time.

A mother of six, Shammari was forced to retire from her job as a headteacher in Jeddah in 2011, reportedly because of her activism, and was denied her pension and retirement benefits, Amnesty said.

A women's rights activist, she participated in campaigns to end the ban on female drivers. As head of the Saudi Liberal Network, she called for peaceful social and political reform.

"This is a step in the right direction", Adam Coogle, Middle East Researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), told al-Araby al-Jadeed. "But the truth is that she should never have been arrested in the first place for peacefully expressing her views.

"Saudi Arabia should follow this up by releasing Walid Abu al-Kheir, Raif Badawi and others."

Abu al-Kheir, a prominent human rights lawyer and founder of the Monitor of Human Rights watchdog in Saudi Arabia, was sentenced in 2014 to ten years in prison on charges of breaking allegiance to the king, showing disrespect for the authorities and establishing an unauthorised association, among others.

Saudi Arabia's new King Salman issued an amnesty for some prisoners on Thursday as part of the new government's reforms, but Rimaly said her mother's release was unconnected to this.

The amnesty is unlikely to include Abu al-Kheir and Badawi, who is also serving a ten-year prison sentence for "insulting Islam".

Badawi was arrested under a 2007 anti-cybercrime law and ordered to receive 1,000 lashes, which has drawn international condemnation and was called "cruel and inhuman" by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein.

Badawi was given the first 50 lashes of his sentence in public in Jeddah on 9 January, but further rounds of flogging have been postponed for medical reasons. Last Friday, the flogging was postponed for the third time. His wife, Ensaf Haidar, has sought asylum in Canada with their three children.

Shammari has said the charges against Badawi were brought after the Saudi Liberal Network criticised clerics and the country's religious police, who have been accused of heavy-handedness in enforcing a strict interpretation of Islamic law. The website was closed down.

An appeals court later overturned Badawi's original verdict of seven years in jail and 600 lashes, ordering a retrial - which resulted in the more severe sentence.

With additional reporting by AFP