Please sign this petition to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to put pressure on Saudi Arabia to free liberal blogger Raef Badawi. Free Raif Badawi!

<a href="Immediate release of Saudi blogger Raef Badawi Petition | GoPetition” title=”Please sign this petition to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to put pressure on Saudi Arabia to free liberal blogger Raef Badawi. Free Raif Badawi!”>Please sign this petition to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to put pressure on Saudi Arabia to free liberal blogger Raef Badawi. Free Raif Badawi!

Petition Background (Preamble):

This letter will be sent to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). 

You can add your signature to letter through this petition.

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Petition:

Dear Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,
We would like to take the opportunity to call your attention to the case of blogger Raef Badawi.

A Jeddah court ,on July 29 2013, convicted blogger Raef Badawi of violating Saudi Arabia’s anti-cybercrime. The blogger was sentenced to 600 lashes and seven years in prison. The Criminal Court found Raif Badawi, the founder of the Free Saudi Liberals website, guilty of insulting Islam through his website and in comments he made on television, and added three months to his term for “parental disobedience.”

Criminal Court Judge Faris al-Harbi dropped a charge of apostasy, which carries the death penalty. He has been detained in Jeddah’s Buraiman prison since his arrest on June 17, 2012.

Blogger and human rights activist Raef Badawi’s sentence was increased by a Jeddah criminal court on appeal on 7 May to 10 years in prison, 1,000 lashes and a fine of 1 million riyals (200,000 euros).

The freedom of speech is a right. No citizen of Saudi Arabia should be arrested and sentenced for having expressed its opinion.

We call for a strong diplomatic pressure for his immediate release.

In awaiting your reply, be assured of our most respectful sentiments.

 

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Free Raif Badawi shared Stand for Raif Badawi on World Press Freedom Day‘s photo.

May 29

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=714550501944167&set=a.667716126627605.1073741828.665720683493816&type=1&theater

“And Badawi’s sentence also made headlines earlier this month, when it was extended from 600 to 1,000 lashes, seven to 10 years in jail, and an additional fine was imposed of about $290,000.

Leader of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, Muhammad Badahdah, stated the increased penalty was merited due to Badawi’s “abuse of Islam.”

(Fellow Muslims take note: this means Raif Badawi’s demands — churches for Christians, an end to the male guardianship system and an abolition of apostasy laws, is regarded by Saudi clerics as “an abuse of Islam.” Blasphemy anyone?)

Earlier this month, protests to free Badawi were held outside Saudi embassies in Washington, Madrid, Auckland, Bern, Tunis and Ottawa, subsequently, in Paris and Berlin, and earlier this year, in Norway and Rome. In Canada we asked our government to demand Saudi authorities release Raif Badawi and bring him to Canada to reunite with his wife and children, in Quebec.”

Rest here: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/shahla-khan-salter/muslim-advocates_b_5372479.html

 

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