He was released from detention but there was no question of leaving Saudi Arabia immediately. Released Friday evening after ten years in prison, the Saudi human rights activist Raif Badawi is prevented from leaving the country. “The sentencing of Raif Badawi to ten years in prison was followed [à sa libération] a ban on leaving the territory for the same period. The court had rendered its decision and it is final.confirms this Saturday a source within the Saudi Ministry of the Interior. He therefore cannot leave the territory for the next ten years unless a (royal) pardon is granted to him.”
The former winner of the Reporters Without Borders prize for press freedom, aged 38, was arrested in 2012 and then sentenced at the end of 2014 to ten years in prison and 50 lashes a week for twenty weeks for having pleaded in particular for an end to the influence of religion on public life. The first flogging session in a public square in Saudi Arabia in 2015 shocked the world. He was not whipped again afterwards.
His fight for freedom of expression and his conviction led to him being chosen in 2015 by the leaders of the political groups of the European Parliament as the winner of the Sakharov Prize for freedom of expression. In 2015 and 2016, he was among the nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize.
His family is in Quebec
If the question of leaving the country arises for Raif Badawi, it is because his wife and three children live in Quebec. The province has also paved the way for the blogger’s exile to Canada by placing him on a priority list of potential immigrants for humanitarian reasons. As of Friday, the Prime Minister of Quebec, François Legault, had tweeted: “At last ! I keep thinking about the children who will finally find their father!” The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau‚ himself said “relieved” of the release of Raif Badawi.
The NGO Amnesty International says “actively seek to ensure that all conditions” linked to his release “lifts”, in particular this ban on leaving Saudi territory for ten years. Released in 2021, Raif Badawi’s sister, Samar Badawi, as well as activist Nassima al-Sadah, also remain stranded in the kingdom.