New footage emerges showing Saudi 'prisoner of conscience' Raif Badawi being lashed by authorities

New footage emerges showing Saudi 'prisoner of conscience' Raif Badawi being lashed by authorities
New video footage of jailed blogger Raif Badawi being flogged by authorities in Saudi Arabia was posted online on Monday.
2 min read
11 July, 2017
The blogger was imprisoned in 2012. [Getty
New video footage of jailed blogger Raif Badawi being flogged by authorities in Saudi Arabia was posted online on Monday.

The Saudi writer and activist was arrested in 2012, and brought to court on several charges including insulting Islam using electronic channels, and apostasy – which carries an automatic death sentence. 

In 2013, he was sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes, of which he received 50 in the first round of public flogging in 2015.

Fifty lashes were due to be administered every Friday afterwards, but following rounds have so far been postponed due to ill health.

Later in 2015, his sentence was extended to ten years imprisonment and 1,000 lashes.

On Monday, a video claiming to show Badawi's being publicly flogging was uploaded to his Twitter page.

It appears similar to leaked footage which emerged in 2015 purporting to show the activist receiving public lashes in a square outside a mosque in his home city of Jeddah.

In March this year, Saudi authorities confirmed the verdict against Badawi, demanding the activist pay a one million riyal fine ($270,000) for allegedly insulting Islam, according to a post on his Twitter account.

Amnesty International has designated him a prisoner of conscience and he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015.

Although Badawi is a Saudi citizen, his wife Ensaf Haidar and the blogger's family fled to North America following alleged death threats in Saudi Arabia.

Based in Canada, Haidar has worked tirelessly for her husband's release.