Last year Ensaf Haidar addressed Saudi Arabia at U.N human Rights Council regarding her husband, convicted on several charges in 2013 and sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticize Saudi Arabia’s clerics.
On January, Haidar was in France and many events were organized, you can read our news here.
Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, met with Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace during his recent visit to the United Kingdom. Ahead of this visit, Amnesty International UK published a tweet and a press release mentioning the situation of jailed blogger Raif Badawi:
This was a demo outside the Saudi embassy in London in 2015, shortly after the jailed blogger Raif Badawi was lashed 50 times (part of a 1,000-lash sentence). Despite the outcry, Badawi is STILL in jail in "reforming" Saudi Arabia …
Read more here: https://t.co/9B6h9otLqJ pic.twitter.com/yqOvH5Utz4
— News From Amnesty (@NewsFromAmnesty) March 7, 2018
From Amnesty’s press release:
For the past three to four years – both before and after Mohammed bin Salman’s rise to power – Amnesty has documented a new pattern of systematic repression by the Saudi authorities in which virtually all independent human rights activists and critics have been silenced. Many have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms, while others have been forced to flee the country. The online commentator Raif Badawi remains in jail. Counter-terrorism laws been used to prosecute human rights activists on vague and overly-broad charges for their peaceful activism. The notorious Specialised Criminal Court, set up to try alleged security and terrorism-related offences, has sentenced several human rights activists to up to 15 years in prison in flagrantly unfair trials.
Last week, Member of Parliament for Glasgow South & SNP Spokesperson for Defence Stewart McDonald tweeted:
Please RT: Raif Badawi has languished in a Saudi prison for six years for writing things his government didn’t like. His wife & three beautiful children have claimed asylum in Canada. As the Crown Prince’s PR team monitor #ANewSaudiArabia, make Raif Badawi’s case known to them. pic.twitter.com/ri6Sweb6CC
— Stewart McDonald MP (@StewartMcDonald) March 7, 2018
As you know, we are supporting Raif Badawi, his wife Ensaf Haidar and their family by raising awareness and rallying for his release. This visit is another occasion to spread the word about what happened to Badawi and to contribute to make his case known by everyone. Mohammed bin Salman explains he wants to modernize his country, he could start by letting people to freely express themselves and release Badawi and other jailed activists.
