“Raif called me, he is free”, his wife, Ensaf Haidar, told AFP very moved. After 10 years in prison for “insulting Islam”, Saudi blogger and human rights activist Raif Badawi, who has become a symbol of freedom of expression around the world, was released on Friday March 11. The news has been confirmed by a Saudi security official to AFP on condition of anonymity: “Yes, he was released today”, said this source, without giving further details. “I jumped everywhere when I found out. I couldn’t believe it anymore. I can’t wait to see my dad, so excited”told AFP one of his daughters, Najwa Badawi, 18.
The former winner of the Reporters Without Borders prize for freedom of the press, aged 38 today, 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 the end of the influence of religion on public life.
The first flogging in a public square in Saudi Arabia in 2015 shocked the world for its character “medieval”, in the words of a Swedish minister at the time. He was not whipped again afterwards.
“Raif Badawi, human rights defender in Saudi Arabia, has finally been released!”, tweeted Friday Amnesty International Canada, speaking of a long-awaited news. “Thousands of you have mobilized alongside us in the defense of Raif Badawi for 10 years. A big thank you to all of you for your tireless support”added the NGO.
For Colette Lelièvre, who followed the file for Amnesty International Canada, it is a “great relief”. After receiving the phone call from Raif Badawi, “Ensaf was at a loss for words because it was too sudden. She worked so hard to free her husband that emotions overwhelmed her”she confided.
Reporters Without Borders has also “greeted” this decision on Twitter.
URGENT #Saudi Arabia : @Raif_Badawi was released after 10 years in prison! RSF welcomes this decision & shares the relief of those close to it. We remain mobilized so that he remains safe & can join his family in Canada despite his 10-year travel ban. pic.twitter.com/UKh7IN8SqO
— RSF (@RSF_inter) March 11, 2022