News Digest

Saudi Arabia ‘holds off flogging’ Raif Badawi for a second successive week

Saudi Arabia has postponed the flogging punishment of a blogger on health grounds for a second time, Amnesty International has said. The organisation said: “The planned flogging of Raif Badawi will be suspended this Friday after a medical committee assessed that he should not undergo a second round of lashes on health grounds.” The blogger has been sentenced to 1,000 lashes for criticising leading clerics and is serving a 10-year jail sentence. Badawi, 30, was given the first 50 lashes of his sentence on 9 January outside a mosque in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

There is no way of knowing whether the Saudi Arabian authorities will disregard the medical advice and allow the flogging to go ahead.

Said Boumedouha, Amnesty’s deputy Middle East and North Africa director

He was expected to face 20 flogging sessions in total, but last Friday his wife said the second round had been delayed on medical grounds. Ensaf Haidar, who has sought asylum in Canada, also said her husband’s case has been referred to the supreme court, possibly paving the way for an appeal. Amnesty said a committee of several doctors carried out a series of tests at a Jeddah hospital on Wednesday and recommended against a new session of caning.