A planned flogging for a Saudi blogger was not carried out Friday — the third straight week that a scheduled set of 50 lashes was postponed after he endured wounds in an initial set in the conservative kingdom — his sister told CNN.
The reason why Raif Badawi received another reprieve Friday wasn’t immediately available, but previous postponements were made because doctors determined he was too badly injured in his first beating January 9 to withstand more, according to Amnesty International and his wife.
The case of Badawi, who was sentenced last year to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes after a Jeddah court convicted him of insulting Islam, has garnered international headlines and global outrage.
Badawi started a blog called “Free Saudi Liberals” in 2008 to encourage discussion about Islam, particularly the intrusion of the nation’s religious police in Saudis’ personal lives. He was officially charged with “adopting liberal thought,” “founding a liberal website,” and insulting Islam, and was convicted of the latter.
Badawi received his first 50 lashes on January 9 and was taken back to prison. He wasn’t flogged as scheduled in subsequent weeks, including this Friday, his sister, Samar Badawi, said.
Said Boumedouha, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa program, said last week that Saudi authorities should “publicly announce an end to his flogging and release him immediately and unconditionally,” rather than assess his fitness to be flogged week by week.
“Raif Badawi is still at risk. There is no way of knowing whether the Saudi Arabian authorities will disregard the medical advice and allow the flogging to go ahead,” Boumedouha said last week.