Saudi Blogger To Serve 10yrs / 1000 Lashes. Crime: Creating A Free Online Liberals Forum

A Saudi blogger Raif Baddawi, whose wife and children fled to Canada to start a new life was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes. Baddawi was arrested in 2012 for creating an online forum called Free Saudi Liberals. The website is now shuttered. Full post after cut.............

He receives 50 lashes once a week for the next 20 weeks in a public flogging after morning prayers outside a mosque in Jiddah the London-based human rights group Amnesty International said. Amnesty International condemned the sentence as cruel and inhumane punishment. “It is horrifying to think that such a vicious and cruel punishment should be imposed on someone who is guilty of nothing more than daring to create a public forum for discussion and peacefully exercising the right to freedom of expression,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa director.

Baddawi was originally sentenced in 2013 to 7 years in prison and 600 lashes, but after losing his appeal, the judge stiffened his sentence. He was also ordered to pay a $266,000 USD fine. In addition to losing the appeal, the judge threw Baddawi’s lawyer in prison for 15 years and barred him from traveling for another 15 years after his sentence is completed. The judge slapped the lawyer with a litany of charges including “inciting public opinion” and “insulting the judiciary.” Baddawi, who has been held in prison since mid-2012, called his family from prison to inform them of his upcoming public flogging.