Demand Stephen Harper, PM of Canada, Obtain the Release of Raif Badawi from Saudi Arabia

  • by: Lynn Squance
  • recipient: Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper

We demand that the Right Honourable Prime Minister Stephen Harper obtain the release of Raif Badawi from Saudi Arabia so that he may join his family in Canada where they were accepted as refugees in 2013, and continue to live.

Raif Badawi, a Saudi Arabian citizen whose wife escaped from Saudi Arabia to Canada with their 3 children as refugees in 2013, received the first 50 lashings of 1,000 total on 09 January 2015 for offences including creating an online forum for public debate and insulting Islam.

This from Wikipedia lays out the events and agrees with the accounts from AI, the CBC, and the BBC that I have read:
"On 17 June 2012, he was arrested on a charge of insulting Islam through electronic channels, and in December of that year was also cited for apostasy, a conviction which carries an automatic death sentence. Human Rights Watch stated that Badawi's website had hosted material criticizing "senior religious figures". Badawi had also suggested that Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University had become "a den for terrorists."

Badawi was first detained on apostasy charges in 2008, but was released after a day of questioning. The government banned him from leaving the country and froze his bank accounts in 2009. The family of Badawi's wife subsequently filed a court action to forcibly divorce the couple on grounds of Badawi's alleged apostasy.

Following Badawi's 2012 arrest, Amnesty International designated him a prisoner of conscience, "detained solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression". A spokesman for the group stated that, "Even in Saudi Arabia where state repression is rife, it is beyond the pale to seek the death penalty for an activist whose only 'crime' was to enable social debate online". Human Rights Watch called for the government to drop the charges, stating, "The charges against him, based solely to Badawi's involvement in setting up a website for peaceful discussion about religion and religious figures, violate his right to freedom of expression".

Badawi appeared before a district court in Jeddah on 17 December 2012 charged with "setting up a website that undermines general security", "ridiculing Islamic religious figures", and "going beyond the realm of obedience". That judge referred Badawi to a higher court for the charge of apostasy declaring that he "could not give a verdict in a case of apostasy." On 22 December, the General Court in Jeddah decided to proceed with the apostasy case. The higher court refused to hear the case and referred it back to the lower court.

On July 30, 2013 Saudi media reported that Raif Badawi had been sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for founding an Internet forum that "violates Islamic values and propagates liberal thought". The court also ordered the website closed.

On December 26, 2013 Badawi's wife told CNN that a judge had recommended him to go before a high court for the apostasy charge which would result in a death penalty if convicted. On May 7, 2014 Badawi was re-sentenced to 1000 lashes and ten years in prison. He also received a fine of 1 million riyal (equal to about $267,000). [CAD$315,000]

Badawi's lawyer Waleed Abulkhair has been jailed after setting up Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, a Saudi human rights organization. He is being charged for "setting up an unlicensed organization" and for "breaking allegiance with the ruler". His requests to license the organization were denied.

Badawi has stated that he was a Muslim but "everyone has a choice to believe or not believe."

According to Human Rights Watch in its review of Saudi Arabia's membership in the United Nations Human Rights Council, "Over the last year Saudi authorities have harassed, investigated, prosecuted, and jailed prominent peaceful dissidents and human rights activists on vague charges based solely on their peaceful practice of basic rights, particularly the right to free expression ..."

I have also published AI's petition at Saudi Authorities Must Put An End to Public Flogging of Blogger which you can also sign if you have not done so yet.

Thank you in advance for your support of Raif Badawi.

The Right Honourable Stephen Harper,


Prime Minister of Canada,


Parliament Buildings,


Ottawa, Ontario


Dear Mr Harper,


Raif Badawi, in prison in Saudi Arabia, has just received the first 50 lashes of a 1,000 lash sentence that also includes 10 years in prison.  Badawi`s wife, Ensaf Haidar, and children were accepted in Canada in 2013 as refugees from Saudi Arabia.


Please intervene with Saudi Arabian authorities on Badawi`s behalf to secure his release to Canada where he can join his family.  Demonstrate what Canadian values and human rights mean.


We, the undersigned petitioners, thank you in advance for securing his release.

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