An internet
blogger facing 1,000 lashes for criticising clerics in Saudi Arabia was
given new hope last night after the apparent intervention of the king.
Bowing to massive international pressure, King Abdullah has referred the case of Raif Badawi to the country's supreme court.
There
has been no official statement from the Saudi government on the
monarch's intervention, revealed by Mr Badawi's wife, Ensaf.
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Father of three Raif Badawi faces 50 lashings every Friday for the next 18 weeks for 'insulting Islam'
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Mr Badawi's wife, Ensaf Haidar, fled
to Canada with their children. She says he started a forum that was
meant to encourage discussion of the Muslim faith. After seeing the
video, she said: 'Every lash killed me'
Earlier
yesterday Saudi Arabia was accused of 'outrageous inhumanity' after it
delayed the father of three's flogging sentence…so his wounds could heal
before he was whipped again.
Mr
Badawi, 31, has won support from governments and human rights groups
around the world after he was sentenced to ten years in prison, a
£177,000 fine and the lashes.
His
official crime was to insult Islam but supporters say his real offence
was to criticise the country's powerful Sunni clerics on his blog. He
faces 50 lashings every Friday for the next 18 weeks.
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