Saudi King To Refer Lashed Blogger's Case To Supreme Court

   

The BBC has just reported that King of Saudi Arabia says he will refer the case of the Saudi blogger who was sentenced to 1000 public lashes ‘for insulting Islam', to the Supreme Court. This after the wife of the blogger sentenced today accused the government of killing her husband week by week - and spoke of her agony at ‘watching him die one lash at a time’. Raif Badawi, who wrote a blog on human rights and social change, is being flogged 50 times every Friday for supposedly insulting religious figures and undermining the regime - a charge he and his wife Ensaf Haidar strenuously deny.
The first 50 of the lashes were inflicted in front of hundreds in the main square in Jeddah last week - and the same is due to happen again today, and for the next 18 weeks, until all 1,000 have been completed.
It is believed Raif, a 31-year-old father of three, will need hospital attention after each flogging; it has been suggested his body will not be able to sustain the assault over the coming weeks.
For Ensaf, almost 6,000 miles away in Quebec, it is too much to bear.