Saudi Raif Badawi blogger was released after ten years in prison for “insults to Islam”

Arrested in 2012 and sentenced at the end of 2014, he had become a symbol of freedom of expression in the world.

Le Monde with AFP

After ten years in prison for “insults to Islam”, the Saudi blogger and militant human rights Raif Badawi, become a symbol of freedom of expression in the world, was released Friday 11 March.

“Raif called me, he is free,” said France-Presse his wife, Ensaf Haidar, very moved. A new confirmed by a Saudi security officer under the cover of anonymity.

The former Winner of the Reporters Without Borders Prize for Freedom of the Press, 38 years old today, was arrested in 2012, and sentenced at the end of 2014 to ten years in prison and 50 whiptops per week For twenty weeks for pleading, in particular, for the end of the influence of religion on public life. The first flagellation session on a public place in Saudi Arabia, in 2015, shocked the world for its “medieval” character, according to the expression of a Swedish minister at the time. He was no longer whipped afterwards.

For Colette Lelièvre, who followed the file for Amnesty International in Canada, it is a “great relief”. ENSAF Haidar, which has become a Canadian citizen, lives in Quebec, 150 kilometers from Montreal, with their three children. She told in February having been able to maintain contact with her husband by talking to him “up to three times a week” by phone.

She has been fighting for years for her liberation and so that he can join them. Canada paved the way for RAIF Badawi exile by placing it on a priority list of potential immigrants for humanitarian reasons.

Prohibition to leave Saudi Arabia

But amnesty recalls that the Saudi blogger remains for the moment submitted to a ban on leaving the kingdom for ten years once his pruning was purged.

The brutal repression of dissenting voices and the imprisonment of activists in Saudi Arabia are so far denounced by international NGOs and the United Nations, although the kingdom seeks to improve its international image by entering certain reforms.

Sunni Muslim as the majority of Saudis, Raif Badawi studied and led an Institute for Learning English and computer techniques, according to his wife. He likes to read and made himself known by his writings in favor of freedom of expression. The blogger is the winner of the 2014 RSF Award in the “Net-Citizen” category. It was also chosen in 2015 by the leaders of the political groups of the European Parliament as the winner of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Expression. In 2015 and 2016, he was among the nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize.

/Media reports.