Wife of Imprisoned, Lashed Saudi Blogger Speaks Out
Ensaf Haidar, the wife of an imprisoned Saudi Arabian journalist, recently visited the United States as part of her ongoing campaign to free her husband, and to remind the world of Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on peaceful dissidents.
Raif Badawi was jailed in 2012 and later publicly flogged for running a website called Free Saudi Liberals, and for publishing blog posts a court found to have “insulted Islam.” He was also convicted of having violated an anti-cybercrime law because his site “infringe[d] on religious values.”
Haidar has for years been speaking out against her husband’s imprisonment, hoping to pressure Saudi authorities to free him. His health is deteriorating, and without access to medical care he will continue to suffer the effects of the flogging, she says. Haidar came to the United States, a close ally of Saudi Arabia, to speak with the media and members of Congress – 67 of whom signed a letter in March calling on Saudi Arabia’s King Salman to release Badawi.
Haidar wants President Obama to lobby for her husband’s release as well. “I definitely hope [Obama] would have a personal conversation with King Salman and be able to persuade him to let Raif go free,” she tells Rolling Stone through an interpreter.
In 2008, after founding his website, Badawi was detained for a day; the following year, the Saudi government placed a travel ban on him. A month before his 2012 arrest, he called for a “day for Saudi liberals,” which his lawyer has suggested may have made him a target for the authorities.
In 2014, he was sentenced to ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes, to be dolled out 50 at a time. The first round of lashes came this January, in a public square in Jeddeh following Friday prayers. Badawi’s sentence was upheld by Saudi Arabia’s supreme court in June, thus foreclosing the possibility of any further appeals.
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