Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger who spent a decade in prison, has been released

Raif Badawi, a Saudi Arabian blogger, and activist whose conviction sparked an international outcry was released from prison on Friday after a decade in prison for challenging the country’s hardline religious establishment, according to his Quebec-based wife. Ensaf Haidar, who lives in Sherbrooke with his wife and three children, tweeted that the 2015 winner of Europe’s Sakharov human rights award “is free.” The family’s spokesman claimed the family had no further comment.

Badawi’s term expired on February 28, and Irwin Cotler, a Montreal-based human rights lawyer who represents Badawi worldwide, indicated last month that his release was likely in March. Cotler, a former federal justice minister and the founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, had warned that Badawi would still face a 10-year travel restriction, a media ban, and a hefty fine if convicted.

“We’re talking about a kind of no-fly zone where he won’t be able to travel for the next ten years,” Cotler remarked at the time. “That would be a continuation of the punishment he was receiving inside prison – the acute pain of being separated from his wife and children.” For challenging Saudi clerics in his writings, Badawi was imprisoned in 2012 and convicted in 2014 to ten years in prison, 1,000 floggings, and a fine of one million Saudi riyals (about $340,000).

The majority of the floggings were stopped, but in 2015, he was subjected to 50 lashes in front of hundreds of people in Jiddah. During the flogging, Badawi’s feet and hands were tied, but his face was visible. The penalty sparked worldwide indignation and criticism, including from many of Saudi Arabia’s friends.

Badawi was given Sakharov Prize for Human Rights

In 2015, Badawi was given the renowned Sakharov Prize for Human Rights by the European Union, and the US State Department and the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights called for the monarchy to overturn the sentence. After Sweden’s foreign minister labeled the Badawi verdict as “medieval” and stated the kingdom’s ruling Al Saud family presided over a “dictatorship,” Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador to Sweden and stopped awarding work visas to Swedes in 2015.

Both the House of Commons and the Senate of Canada encouraged the immigration minister to grant Badawi Canadian citizenship last year, but this has yet to materialize. His wife, on the other hand, is a Canadian citizen. According to rights groups, Badawi’s sister Samar was also imprisoned in 2018 as part of a campaign targeting female activists who peacefully advocated for greater freedoms. Last year, she was let free.

As a result of Canada’s criticism of her situation, the Saudi authorities expelled Canada’s ambassador and withdrew its own. It also ordered Saudi students in Canada to return home and halted flights by its national airline. Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship regulations, which granted spouses, fathers, and in some circumstances a woman’s own son power over her ability to get a passport and travel, have been questioned by Samar Badawi and others. They had also fought for women’s right to drive. Both limitations have been lifted since then. 

Samar Badawi rose to popularity after petitioning Saudi courts to remove her father as her legal guardian on the grounds that he was preventing her from marrying suitable suitors. She spoke out in support of her brother Raif years later. 

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