Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Saudi Arabia: Second Flogging Postponed for Medical Grounds - URGENT ACTION

Raif Badawi’s scheduled public flogging on Friday 16 January was postponed on medical grounds. He is a prisoner of conscience who was publicly flogged the previous Friday, receiving 50 lashes. He remains at imminent risk of receiving the remaining 950 lashes over the coming weeks. 

View the full Urgent Action, including case information, addresses and sample messages, here. 
 
On Friday 16 January Raif Badawi was removed from his cell and taken to the prison clinic for a medical check-up before his sentence was due to be carried out. The doctor concluded that the flogging should be postponed given that Raif Badawi’s wounds, sustained from the previous week’s flogging, had not yet healed sufficiently and that he would not be able to withstand another round of lashes. 

It is feared that Raif Badawi will receive his next set of 50 lashes on Friday 23 January, despite mass protests organized by activists in front of Saudi Arabian embassies worldwide and official appeals, including by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who called the flogging “at the very least, a form of cruel and inhuman punishment... prohibited under international human rights law, in particular the Convention against Torture, which Saudi Arabia has ratified”.
 
For more information, click here.