Saudi blogger Raif Badawi to be flogged again, wife says
(CNN) A Saudi blogger convicted of "insulting Islam" is expected to receive the second 50 lashes of a 1,000-lash sentence soon, his wife says.
Blogger Raif Badawi has been behind bars since 2012 for his online posts and running a blog called "Saudi Arabian Liberals," where he hosted political and religious debate and advocated secularism in a highly religious society.
His wife, Ensaf Haidar, has said Badawi created the forum in 2008 in an effort to encourage discussion about faith.
But in 2014, a Jeddah court convicted him of "insulting Islam," handing down a 10-year prison term and ordering that Badawi be whipped 1,000 times.
The lashings are to be carried out 50 lashes at a time, 20 weeks in a row. Badawi received the first flogging in January 2015, but since then, the punishment has been pushed back several times.
In a statement published on the Raif Badawi Foundation website Tuesday, Haidar said that an "informed source" told her that Saudi authorities had approved resuming the floggings.
"The informed source also said that the flogging will resume soon but will be administered inside the prison," Haidar said. The sentence originally called for the floggings to be carried out in public.
"It is worth mentioning that the same source had warned me of Raif's pending flogging at the beginning of January 2015 and his warning was confirmed, as Raif was flogged on 9th January," she said.
Haidar, who has been granted political asylum in Canada along with the couple's three children, urged the Saudi King to show mercy.
"I call on his Majesty King Salman to gracefully end my husband's ordeal and to pardon him. I also appeal to his Majesty to allow him to be deported to Canada to be reunited with his family and children, who have been deprived of their father for more than four years," she said.
On Twitter, Haidar appealed to incoming Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to help her husband. Trudeau has previously expressed support for Badawi.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/27/middleeast/saudi-blogger-flogging-badawi/
My comments: Saudi Arabia, carries on the Tradition of Islam, Fear and Torture. Demonstrating that Islam is so Weak that they must beat anyone who speaks in deference to the Tenets of Islam. The Saudis, as with ISIS demonstrates that Islam is an Evil Religion based on the Koran that Incites Violence against Everyone, including its own.
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