Raif Badawi tells of flogging ordeal in letter from Saudi prison

[Valin]

The Guardian:

Blogger jailed since 2012 for ‘insulting Islam’ describes how he ‘miraculously survived’ the first 50 of 1,000 lashes

Agence France-Presse

Friday 27 March 2015

 

Jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi has written in his first letter from prison of how he “miraculously survived 50 lashes”, part of his sentence for “insulting Islam”, a German news weekly has said.

 

Badawi, 31, recalled that he was “surrounded by a cheering crowd who cried incessantly ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is greatest)” during the whipping, according to a pre-released article from Der Spiegel’s edition to be published on Saturday.

 

Badawi received the first 50 of the 1,000 lashes he was sentenced to outside a mosque in the Red Sea city of Jeddah on 9 January. Subsequent rounds of punishment were postponed on medical grounds.

 

“All this cruel suffering happened to me because I expressed my opinion,” Badawi is quoted as writing in what Der Spiegel said was his first letter from prison since he was jailed in 2012.

 

“He’s in a poor condition,” his wife Ensaf Haidar was quoted as saying. “He suffers from high blood pressure but above all he is mentally very stressed.”

 

(Snip)

 

H/T AEI