Amnesty said on Friday (January 23) that it feared
Saudi Arabia's new king would not do enough to clean up the country's human rights record, including freeing blogger Raif Badawi, sentenced to imprisonment with public flogging.
King Salman has so far pledged continuity since succeeding his brother Abdullah who died early on Friday, which has failed to reassure Amnesty activists who accuse the country of multiple human rights abuses.
Badawi was arrested in June 2012 for offences which included insulting Islam, cyber crime and disobeying his father and was sentenced last year to 10 years in jail, a fine of 1 million riyals ($267,000) and 1,000 lashes.
"We could hope for a change in Saudi Arabia's policy towards human rights -- and we can't forget about the death penalty, the treatment of women and so on so there's lots to be done -- but at the same time his brother, who's going to succeed him, has already said that it's important for him to continue along the same path, and actually he's even stricter," Amnesty France President Genevieve Garrigos said at a demonstration in Paris in support of Badawi's case.
"For us we're more nervous than anything today, which is why this demonstration is so important, not to give up," Garrigos added. Amnesty said the next round of Badawi's flogging, due to take place on Friday, had been postponed for medical reasons, raising the possibility that the government might be trying to drop the punishment after an international outcry.
Secretary General of Reporters Without Borders, Christophe Deloire, said he hoped the build-up of international pressure would force the Saudi government's hand in the Badawi case.
"We hope that the international pressure in that case, the Raif Badawi case, will be a success, and that the new King Salman will pardon Raif Badawi and that really things will change in that country," he said.
Amnesty said Badawi was still at risk of flogging despite the medical report.
Later, the demonstrators were set to submit a petition bearing 50,000 signatures to the Saudi embassy, calling for a pardon for Badawi.
REUTERS