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Saudi Blogger Threatened With More Lashes

The Free Raif campaign has received global support and the Raif Badawi Foundation was set up to raise awareness of his punishment.
The Free Raif campaign has received global support and the Raif Badawi Foundation was set up to raise awareness of his punishment.

Saudi Arabia reportedly wants to resume its corporal punishment against detained blogger Raif Badawi. In an interview with DW, Badawi opens up about his fears.

The Saudi blogger received the first part of his corporal punishment, 50 lashes, on January 9, 2015. The punishment was carried out in public in a square next to a mosque in Jeddah.

Badawi was so badly injured that the rest of his punishment was suspended.

A source close to his wife Ensaf Haidar has told her that the remaining 950 lashes will be carried out privately in prison very soon, Deutsche Welle reported.

“I was totally shocked by the news. I am worried and scared that they will carry on whipping him,” Haidar said in an interview with DW. “I am very concerned about Raif’s health, which is not good. Neither is his mental or his physical state.”

Haidar has called on the Saudi government and royal family to cease the punishments.

“I would hope that the Saudi authorities strip Raif of his citizenship and then deport him to Canada, so he can be with us,” said Haidar, who lives in asylum with their children in Canada. She hopes that western governments will come out to support the suspension of Raif’s sentence.

Badawi was sentenced in May 2014 to 10 years in prison, handed a fine and condemned to 1,000 lashes. His private Internet forum, “The Saudi Liberals”, was intended to serve as a platform for critical and uncensored reports and analyses.

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