Saudi Arabia condemned for activist’s sentence
Inhumane sentence for 'insulting Islam'.
Saudi Arabia has received harsh criticism for the cruel sentence handed down to human rights activist Raif Badawi.
Badawi was arrested in 2012 for his views on his website, Free Saudi Liberals, where issues such as religion and politics were discussed. He was also accused of ‘insulting Islam’.
In 2013 he was convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment and 600 lashes but this was overturned by an appeals court where he received the harsher sentence of ten years and a 1000 lashes.
He received his first round of 50 lashes last Friday outside the Juffali Mosque in Jeddah. According to an eyewitness “There was a very large gathering [of people]. They brought out Raif from the prison car and put him in front of people gathered in a circle around him. Then the officer lashed him 50 times. After the lashing the gathered people shouted in one voice saying “God is great,” and they took Raif and returned him to prison.”
Badawi will receive 50 lashes every Friday over the next 19 weeks.
Various countries including the US and human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch has condemned the sentence and the first round of lashings and has called on the Saudi government to cancel the brutal punishment.
