Raif Badawi

Editorial update · 13 May 2026 — Badawi was released on 11 March 2022 after completing his ten-year prison sentence. He is now subject to a ten-year travel ban that prevents him from joining his wife and three children, who live in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and a ten-year ban on social-media use.

Background and Work

Raif Badawi created the Free Saudi Liberals website in 2008 as a forum for open discussion of religion, politics, and society. The site published essays and hosted debates on topics the Saudi state considered off-limits: secularism, the separation of religion from law, and abuses by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, commonly known as the religious police. Badawi moderated discussions and contributed his own writing. He advocated for freedom of conscience and expression, framing them as universal rights that should apply even in the Kingdom.

His posts did not call for violence or the overthrow of the state. They called for debate. That was enough to make him a target.

Arrest and Charges

Raif Badawi was arrested on 17 June 2012 in Jeddah. The charge was insulting Islam through electronic channels. Prosecutors initially added a charge of apostasy, which carries the death penalty under Saudi law. The trial opened in a criminal court that lacked jurisdiction over religious crimes, prolonging the proceedings and leaving Badawi in pre-trial detention for over a year.

In July 2013 he was sentenced to seven years in prison and six hundred lashes. That sentence was appealed and overturned. In May 2014, after a retrial before a different chamber, he was sentenced to ten years in prison, one thousand lashes to be administered in twenty weekly sessions of fifty each, a fine of one million Saudi riyals (approximately 240,000 euros), a ban on using the internet for ten years after release, and a ten-year travel ban. The harsher sentence followed intervention by prosecutors seeking a more severe punishment.

Public Flogging and International Response

On 9 January 2015, Raif Badawi was taken from Buraiman Prison in Jeddah to the plaza outside Al Juffali Mosque. After Friday prayers, in front of a crowd of worshippers and onlookers, he was flogged fifty times. Video and images of the flogging circulated internationally. Governments, UN bodies, and human rights organisations condemned the punishment as torture. Under sustained diplomatic pressure, Saudi authorities postponed further flogging sessions indefinitely, citing medical grounds. The remaining 950 lashes were never administered, but the sentence was never annulled.

Raif Badawi remained imprisoned in Buraiman Prison throughout the remainder of his sentence. His wife and children, having fled to Canada in 2012, continued to campaign for his release. The case became emblematic of Saudi Arabia's criminalisation of peaceful expression and the use of judicial punishment as spectacle and deterrence.

Hunger Strike and Detention Conditions

On 17 September 2019, Badawi began an open-ended hunger strike. Prison authorities had confiscated his books and essential medication. The protest drew attention to deteriorating conditions and the absence of any prospect for early release. Four days later, on 21 September, he ended the strike after receiving a visit from the Saudi Human Rights Commission. It remains unclear what assurances, if any, were given. No public statement followed the visit, and his detention continued unchanged.

Release and Ongoing Restrictions

Raif Badawi was released on 11 March 2022 after serving his full ten-year sentence. He did not receive early release, pardon, or commutation. The ten-year travel ban imposed as part of his 2014 sentence remains in force. He is prohibited from leaving Saudi Arabia until March 2032. He remains separated from his wife and children, who hold asylum status in Canada. The travel ban functions as a continued punishment and a tool of family separation. Badawi cannot reunite with his children, and they cannot safely return to Saudi Arabia while he remains a convicted blasphemer under Saudi law.