Saudi blogger Raif Badawi is seen in an undated portrait provided by Amnesty International. Photo: Reuters/Amnesty InternationalSaudi blogger Raif Badawi, who has been sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail for insulting Islam and for cyber crime, was awarded the European Union’s prize for human rights and freedom of thought yesterday.
Mr Badawi received the first of his 50 lashes in January, prompting strong criticism in west-ern countries of the Saudi kingdom’s human rights record, including its restrictive laws on both political and religious expression and the present status of Saudi women.
This month in London, Mr Badawi was given the International Writer of Courage award and was co-recipient of the PEN Pinter Prize.
Following the ‘presentation’ of the award, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in London on Monday moved on to threaten “potentially serious repercussions” for its ties with Britain unless a more respectful discourse developed.
Meanwhile British lawmaker Syed Kamall, a member of the European assembly who nominated Mr Badawi for the EU prize, spoke about the situation and insisted, “Saudi Arabia can lock up the man and they can lash him, but they will only strengthen among his countrymen the yearning for free speech and debate that he stands for.”
A Jeddah court handed Mr Badawi his sentence in 2012 after he criticised the Saudi clergy in a blog and called for changes in the way religion is being practised in Saudi Arabia.
Raif Badawi has been sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail for insulting Islam and for cyber crime
Saudi Arabia, which follows the strict Wahhabi form of Islam, does not accept other religions and in fact it does not even permit the public worship of other faiths or allow them to maintain places of worship inside the country.
In a new law last year, Saudi Arabia also included atheism as a terrorist offence.
Named in honour of Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, Mr Badawi’s latest prize has been awarded by the European Parliament annually since 1988.
The first recipients of the prize for human rights and freedom of thought were Nelson Mandela and Russian author and dissident Anatoly Marchenko.