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On Monday, a court in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia upheld a 10-year prison sentence and 1,000 lashings handed to Raef Badawi, the founder of the liberal rights group Saudi Liberal Network, an activist said.
Badawi was charged for “creating a website insulting Islam” and criticizing the role of religious police “which we all do” in the kingdom, the right group’s co-founderSuad al-Shamari said. Badawi has been in jail since June 2012.
The Saudi court also handed Badawi a fine of 1 million riyals. He was handed the first sentence on May 7th amid criticism from several rights groups, including Amnesty International. The lawsuit against Badawi was filed by clerics.
“We were very surprised (by the ruling).The only hope now is an amnesty from the king or a swift move by the justice minister to form a fair judicial committee”, Shamari said.
Before he was arrested, Badawi’s network had announced a “day of liberalism” and called for a stop to the influence of religion on public life in the kingdom.
In July 2013, Badawi was sentenced to over seven years in prison and 600 lashes for insulting Islam. However, the sentence was overturned in an appeals court, sending the case for retrial when he received a stricter sentence.
“Even the worst terrorists have not received such a harsh sentence. Saudi Arabia is putting together all its efforts to fight terrorism… and finally waking up to the mistakes it has created with its own hands (by following a strict reading of Islamic law)”, Shamari said.
On Friday, King Abdullah highlighted the threat posed by extremists unless there is “rapid” action against them.
Hundreds of people are on trial in Saudi Arabia for adopting an “extremist ideology”, with the kingdom even releasing a “terror” list naming several Sunni and Shi’ite groups. For some time now, Saudi authorities have feared blowback from extremist groups, particularly after a series of al-Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia from 2003 to 2006.