http://www.clarionproject.org/news/saudi-arabia-sentences-editor-7-years-prison-and-600-lashes"Saudi Arabia: Editor Sentenced to 7 Yrs in Prison & 600 Lashes
Raif Badawi hosted an online forum that encouraged participants to voice their opinion about religion in the Kingdom.
The editor of a social website in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for insulting Islam and violating the Kingdom’s anti-cybercrime law. Raif Badawi, the online editor of the “Free Saudi Liberals†forum was also found guilty of “parental disobedience†(a crime in Saudi Arabia) which resulted the criminal court adding another three months to his sentence.
Badawi had left the country in 2008 after the initial charges of insulting Islam were filed against him. After being told that the charges were dropped, he returned, only to be barred from leaving the country again. His business assets were also frozen at the time.
Badawi was moderating a forum that promotes “liberal thinking†by encouraging participants to voice their opinion about religion in the Kingdom.
Charges of apostasy – a crime in the Kingdom that carries the death penalty – that were pending against Badawi were dropped after Badawi testified in court that he is a Muslim. According to his lawyer, the court required Badawi to recite the Shehadeh, the Muslim declaration of faith, in order to drop to apostasy charges."
more at the link
http://www.clarionproject.org/news/saudi-arabia-sentences-editor-7-years-prison-and-600-lashes
