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Saudi court sends message with sentence of ‘1,000 lashes’

The sentencing of a liberal blogger is a reminder of the kingdom’s strict application of Sharia.
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Saudi justice is eager to appear equitable in dealing with both Islamist and liberal dissent. On May 6, a Saudi court sentenced liberal blogger Raif Badawi to 10 years in prison, 1,000 lashes and a fine of $267,000 for apostasy. Badawi has never declared himself an atheist. His crime was to set up a liberal discussion forum where anonymous contributors criticized religious scholars and offered commentaries on religious opinions in the kingdom.

Last year, similar long sentences were imposed on human right activists such as Abdullah al-Hamid and Muhammad al-Qahtani, whose main crime was to set up a political and civil right association calling for reform of the judiciary and an end to unlawful detention and torture in prisons

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