Canada votes to offer citizenship to jailed Saudi blogger
Raif Badawi, whose wife and children live in Canada, is serving a 10-year jail sentence in Saudi Arabia for "insulting Islam."
Canadian lawmakers voted on Wednesday to grant citizenship to a jailed Saudi blogger whose family lives in Quebec.
By a unanimous vote, the House of Commons approved a motion calling on Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino to offer Raif Badawi citizenship “in order to remedy a particular situation and unusual distress.” The non-binding motion doesn't legally require Mendicino to act.
Saudi authorities arrested Badawi in 2012, accusing the popular blogger of “insulting Islam” though interviews and online posts that were critical of Saudi religious figures. A court sentenced him in 2014 to 10 years in prison, 1,000 lashes and a $266,000 fine.
The next year, the European Parliament awarded Badawi the Sakharov Prize for human rights.
