Raif Badawi, Saudi blogger flogged for “insulting Islam”

Blogger Raif Badawi was sentenced in November 2014 to ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes for criticizing Islam on his website “Free Saudi Liberals”.

According to Al Jazeera, Badawi received the first 50 lashes on Friday, 9 January, and he is to undergo 50 lashes after Friday prayer for 20 weeks until his punishment is complete. The blogger will also have to pay a fine of 1 million riyal (equal to about $267,000).

Badawi had been found guilty of “disobeying the ruler and seeking to remove his legitimacy”, “insulting the judiciary and questioning the integrity of judges”, “setting up an unlicensed organization”, “harming the reputation of the state by communicating with international organizations” and “preparing, storing and sending information that harms public order”.

Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Margot Wallstrom says in her Twitter account that “this cruel attempt to silence modern forms of expression has to be stopped.”

Amnesty International qualifies this case as a “vicious act of cruelty”. According to Philip Luther, Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa Director, “It is horrifying to think that such a vicious and cruel punishment should be imposed on someone who is guilty of nothing more than daring to create a public forum for discussion and peacefully exercising the right to freedom of expression”. Said Boumedouha, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, says that “Raif Badawi is a prisoner of conscience.”

According to Lucie Morillon, Reporters Without Borders programme director, “although Saudi Arabia condemned yesterday’s cowardly attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, it is now preparing to inflict the most barbaric punishment on a citizen who just used his freedom of expression and information, the same freedom that cost the French journalists their lives”.

Around 30,000 rights supporters and activists have signed the online petition calling on Saudi's King Abdullah to pardon Badawi.

Raif Badawi is a Saudi writer and activist and the creator of the website “Free Saudi Liberals”. He has been awarded several international honors: the Aikenhead Award 2015 by the Scottish Secular Society, the One Humanity Award 2014 by PEN Canada, the Netizen Prize 2014 by Reporters without Borders.

Source of photo: http://www.centerforinquiry.net/