The wife of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi received on Wednesday the European Union's prize for human rights and freedom of thought on behalf of her husband, who has been sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail for insulting Islam and for cybercrime.
Badawi received the first 50 lashes of his sentence in January, prompting strong criticism in Western countries of the kingdom's human rights record, including its restrictive laws on political and religious expression and the status of Saudi women.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz paid tribute to Badawi, praising his courage to speak out in a place with limited freedom.
“Despite the great risks, Raif Badawi, as a blogger, bravely supported and promoted freedom of thought. All he was doing was exercising his right of freedom of expression and he was feeling that a gap in a country where there is a lack of a free press. There is vacuum in this country for freedom of thoughts. Raif Badawi spoke up for the human right of being able to speak your thoughts in a society in which the ideas of others need to be spoken out,” Schulz said.
Schulz called on Saudi King Salman, who ascended the Saudi throne in January, to free Badawi.
“On behalf of all of us, I would once again call on (Saudi) King Salman to release Raif Badawi and allow him to return to his family,” Schulz said.
Schulz said the European Parliament would not bow to any sort of pressure in his promotion of human rights.
Badawi's wife, Ensaf Haidar, said in an address to members of the European Parliament that her husband's writing about his opinions did not make him a criminal.
“My husband is not a criminal. He's not a highwayman, a drug trafficker. He has done nothing to deserve such a harsh sentence. He simply expressed his views and set them out on paper. He's dreaming of a better world, that's all. A world where people are allowed to think as they wish and express what they think. He spoke out clearly and that's what angered the religious leaders, not just in Saudi Arabia but throughout the Arab world,” Haidar said.
A Jeddah court handed Badawi his sentence in 2012 after he criticized the Saudi clergy in a blog and called for changes in the way religion is practized in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia, which follows the strict Wahhabi form of Islam, does not permit the public worship of other faiths or allow them to maintain places of worship inside the country. In a new law last year, it included atheism as a terrorist offence.
Named in honor of Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, Badawi's latest prize has been awarded by the European Parliament annually since 1988. The first recipients were Nelson Mandela and Russian author and dissident Anatoly Marchenko.
REUTERS