Saudi Arabian blogger: Badawi released after 10 years in prison

In 2014, blogger Raif Badawi was sentenced to ten years in prison for criticizing the strict interpretation of Islam in Saudi Arabia. Now he is free again. However, it is still unclear whether he will also be allowed to leave the country.

Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi has been released after ten years in prison. “Raif called me. He’s free,” Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, who lives in Canada, told the AFP news agency. A Saudi Arabian security official confirmed the release.

Badawi was arrested in 2012 and sentenced in 2014 to ten years in prison, a thousand lashes and a fine of one million rials (about 244,000 euros today) for “insulting Islam”. His conviction had sparked violent international protests.

Badawi’s wife fled to Canada

Badawi had campaigned for freedom of expression and women’s rights and had repeatedly criticized the religious police for their harsh enforcement of Saudi Arabia’s strict interpretation of Islam. In January 2015 he received the first 50 lashes of his sentence, after which the originally weekly appointments for the execution of the sentence were suspended due to the international wave of protests. In the same year, the EU Parliament awarded him the Sakharov Prize for freedom of expression and human rights.

Badawi’s wife Haidar fled to Canada after her husband was arrested. She lives in Sherbrooke, Quebec, with her three children and has adopted Canadian citizenship. From there she fought tirelessly for her husband’s release – for almost seven years she had held a public vigil for him every Friday. She keeps in touch with him through regular phone calls.

Badawi’s sister Samar was also arrested in 2018 after she and other activists demonstrated peacefully for more freedoms for women in Saudi Arabia. She was released in 2021.

At least 3,000 political prisoners in Saudi Arabia

The province of Quebec has put the now 38-year-old on a priority list for immigrants on humanitarian grounds. “I can’t wait to see my father,” one of his daughters, Navja, now 18, told AFP. According to the human rights organization Amnesty International, Badawi could also be banned from leaving the country for ten years after his release.

Nothing was initially known about the details of his release from prison. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his relief on Twitter at Badawi’s release. His government is now working to “create clarity about the conditions of his release”. Former Canadian Attorney General Irwin Cotler, who serves as Badawi’s international counsel, expressed hope that “the Saudi authorities will compassionately facilitate his reunion with his wife and young children in Canada.”

At least 3,000 political prisoners are in jail in Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty International. The deputy secretary-general of the organization in Germany, Julia Duchrow, said: “Every single day that Raif Badawi has been behind bars shows how far away Saudi Arabia is from a constitutional state that respects and upholds human rights.”