Jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi freed, family confirms
Posted March 11, 2022 12:28 pm.
Last Updated October 31, 2022 9:40 am.
The Quebec family of jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi says he’s been freed.
His wife Esaf Haidar tweeting out Friday morning: “After 10 years in prison #Raifisfree”
This comes a decade after he was imprisoned in Saudi Arabia – sentenced to a 10-year prison term and 1,000 lashes in 2012 after being accused of promoting liberal views of Islam.
He was fined $340,000 and given the first 50 lashes in public in 2015, but was spared from the rest after international condemnation.
He served his full sentence as of Feb. 28.
“He’s free!!! Of the prison,” exclaimed family friend Evelyne Abitbol to CityNews on Friday. She’s the cofounder of the Fondation Raif Badawi pour la liberté (FRBL). It’s still unclear when Badawi might be able to reunite with his family who lives in Sherbrooke, Quebec.
But it’s up to the Saudi authorities whether they’ll waive the ten-year travel ban they imposed on Raif following his release.
#Raifestlibre Après 10 ans de détention #Raifestlibre ! #Raifisfree After 10 years in prison #Raifisfree !
بعد 10 سنوات من السجن #رائف_حرّاً pic.twitter.com/1VA0XjSofs— Ensaf Haidar (@miss9afi) March 11, 2022
“My father lived like a nightmare,” said Tirad Raif Badawi, the human rights blogger’s 17-year-old son, to CityNews just last week as they waited for his father’s release. “He does not have a possibility of doing anything in prison. He’s between four walls and he’s going to need to [get] out.”
“It’s very hard all these years without my father,” said Tirad. “They are the longest years of my life and I never thought in my mind we’re going to be apart, separated for this time.”
On Feb. 28, a Bloc Québécois bill asking the Canadian government to grant Badawi citizenship was adopted unanimously in the House of Commons.
Tirad with a message to the Trudeau government: “please, it’s now the time to act for my father.”
