Saudi blogger Raif Badawi was freed from jail on Friday after serving a ten-year sentence, his wife reported to the media. Rights groups say that he is still barred from travelling for another ten years.
Badawi, who ran an online forum, was arrested in 2012, charged with ‘insulting Islam,’ and sentenced to ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes. In 2015, he was given 50 lashes.
His public flogging sparked widespread outrage and provoked harsh criticism of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, particularly its draconian regulations on political and religious speech.
‘After ten years in prison, #Raifisfree,’ his wife Ensaf Haidar tweeted from Canada, where she and their three children have been given political refuge.
According to Amnesty International and the Saudi human rights organisation ALQST, Badawi is still facing a 10-year travel ban.
‘Raif Badawi remains imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, where he is barred from travelling for the next ten years. He is also prohibited from using social media for the next ten years, severely limiting his capacity to express himself’ according to a statement issued by Amnesty International.
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