The second round of flogging for a blogger convicted of insulting Islam has been delayed due to medical reasons. A doctor has concluded that the wounds from the first round of flogging (50 lashes) have not yet healed.
How gracious of them.
Raif Badawi had an appointment set after midday prayers , according to Amnesty International, but after his morning check-up the doctor found that “he would not be able to withstand another round of lashes at this time.” He suggested Badawi be allowed another week to heal from his previous flogging.
Badawi’s first public flogging took place last Friday before dozens of people in the Red Sea city of Jiddah. The father of three was taken to a public square, his feet and hands bound, and whipped 50 times on his back before being taken back to prison.
He was sentenced in May to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for criticizing Saudi Arabia’s powerful clerics and ridiculing the country’s morality police on a liberal blog he founded. The Jiddah Criminal Court also ordered he pay a fine of 1 million Saudi riyals, or about $266,000.
Tge lashes are to be administered in 20 weekly sessions, 50 lashes per week.
The 31-year-old Badawi has been held since mid-2012 and his Free Saudi Liberals website is now closed. He was originally sentenced in 2013 to seven years in prison and 600 lashes in relation to the charges, but after an appeal, the judge stiffened the punishment. Following his arrest, his wife and children left the kingdom for Canada.
“The notion that Raif Badawi must be allowed to heal so that he can suffer this cruel punishment again and again is macabre and outrageous,” said Said Boumedouha, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member