Saudi Arabia on Saturday confirmed a ban on leaving Saudi territory for the next ten years for blogger and human rights activist Raif Badawi, released the day before after ten years in prison.
• Read also: Saudi blogger Raif Badawi freed after 10 years in detention
“The sentencing of Raif Badawi to ten years in prison was followed (upon his release) by a ban on leaving the territory for the same period. The court had rendered its decision and it is final,” a source in the Saudi interior ministry told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“He therefore cannot leave the territory for the next ten years unless a (royal) pardon is granted to him,” added this source.
The former winner of the Reporters Without Borders prize for press freedom, aged 38, was arrested in 2012 and then sentenced at the end of 2014 to ten years in prison and 50 lashes a week for twenty weeks for having pleaded in particular for an end to the influence of religion on public life.
The first flogging session in a public square in Saudi Arabia in 2015 shocked the world for its “medieval” character, according to the expression of a Swedish minister at the time. He was not whipped again afterwards.
“Relieved”
Ensaf Haidar, the wife of Raif Badawi, told AFP on Friday that her husband was “free”, news confirmed by a Saudi security official.
SCREENSHOT / VAT NEWS / QMI AGENCY
After the release of Mr. Badawi, Amnesty indicated in an email sent to AFP “to work actively so that all the conditions” linked to his release are “lifted”, in particular this ban on leaving Saudi territory during 10 years.
Quebec, where Mr. Badawi’s wife and three children live, paved the way for the blogger’s exile to Canada by placing him on a priority list of potential immigrants for humanitarian reasons.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted Friday that he was “relieved” by Badawi’s release.
Earlier, Quebec Premier François Legault tweeted: “Finally! I keep thinking about the children who will finally find their father!”
The brutal repression of dissenting voices and the imprisonment of activists in Saudi Arabia have so far been denounced by international NGOs and the UN, even if the kingdom seeks to improve its international image by undertaking certain reforms.
Raif Badawi’s sister, Samar Badawi, as well as activist Nassima al-Sadah, released in 2021, remain stranded in the kingdom.
Sunni Muslim like the majority of Saudis, Raif Badawi studied economics and ran an institute for learning English and computer techniques, according to his wife.
He became known for his writings in favor of freedom of expression.
The blogger won the 2014 RSF prize in the netizen category. He was also chosen in 2015 by the leaders of the political groups of the European Parliament as the winner of the Sakharov Prize for freedom of expression. In 2015 and 2016, he was among the nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize.