He received the Sakharov Prize for his commitment to freedom of expression and human rights, but also lashes and a long prison sentence in his native Saudi Arabia. After ten years, Raif Badawi has been released.
Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi has been released after serving 10 years in prison. “Raif called me. He’s free,” Badawi’s wife Ensaf Haidar, who lives in Canada with their children, told the AFP news agency on Friday.
Badawi was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to ten years in prison and a thousand lashes in 2014 for “insulting Islam”. His conviction had sparked violent international protests.
Raif Badawi: Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Expression
Raif Badawi campaigned for freedom of expression and women’s rights. He had also repeatedly criticized the religious police for their harsh enforcement of the prevailing strict interpretation of Islam in Saudi Arabia.
In January 2015 he received the first 50 lashes of his sentence, after which the originally weekly execution dates were suspended due to the international wave of protests. In 2015, the EU Parliament awarded him the Sakharov Prize for freedom of expression and human rights.
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Badawi’s wife Haidar lives in Quebec, Canada, with their three children and has acquired Canadian citizenship. From there she has been fighting for her husband’s release for years.
Source: Stern
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