Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger with his sons
Saudi blogger and activist Raif Badawi has been released after 10 years in prison in Saudi Arabia for “insulting Islam”.
“Raef called me, he’s free,” his wife, Ensaf Haidar, told AFP, after she announced the news on Twitter.
A Saudi security official confirmed Badawi’s release and said, “He was released today,” without giving further details.
Raif, the 38-year-old Saudi blogger who won the Reporters Without Borders award for freedom of the press, was arrested in the year 2012. In 2014, a Saudi court sentenced him to ten years in prison and received 50 lashes a week for 20 weeks.
Badawi had called on his website to put an end to the work of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, or “mutawwa’in,” the name known to members of the religious police for decades, which has broad powers to ensure the application of the rules of veiling or the separation of the sexes. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the beginning of 2016.
The public flogging of a Badawi in Saudi Arabia in 2015 shocked the world due to the nature of the punishment, which is reminiscent of the “medieval”, according to the expression of a Swedish minister at the time.
“Raif Badawi, the human rights defender in Saudi Arabia, has finally been released!” Amnesty International Canada tweeted.
Ensaf Haidar, Raif Badawi’s wife, became a Canadian citizen and lives with her three children in Quebec, 150 km from Montreal, where she has been fighting for her husband’s release for years.
picture released, Archyde.com
Ensaf Haider, wife of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi
The province of Quebec has cleared the way for Raif Badawi to come to Canada if he chooses, by placing him on a priority list of potential humanitarian immigrants.
However, Amnesty International stated that the Saudi blogger is still subject to a 10-year ban on leaving the kingdom after completing his sentence.
Since last year, Saudi Arabia has released a number of human rights activists and human rights defenders under pressure from the West, led by Loujain Al-Hathloul in February 2021, and then Samar Badawi, Raif’s sister, and Nassima Al-Sada in June 2021.
Saudi Arabia prevents many released activists and their families from leaving the kingdom, in what human rights organizations consider collective punishment that makes them vulnerable to what it calls state abuse.
Badawi received the Reporters Without Borders award for freedom of expression in 2014, and in December 2015, his wife, who lives in Canada, received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Expression granted by the European Parliament. He was named in 2015 and 2016 on the list of nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize.