MONTREAL: Blogger Raif Badawi was released from a Saudi prison after spending 10 years behind bars on charges of insulting Islam and cyber crime, his wife Ensaf Haidar said on Twitter on Friday.

       “After 10 years in prison #Raifisfree,” tweeted Haidar, who lives in Canada where she and their three children were granted political asylum.

       Badawi, who set up the “Free Saudi Liberals” website, was arrested in June 2012 for offences including cyber crime and disobeying his father — a crime in Saudi Arabia.

       He was sentenced in 2014 to 10 years in jail, a fine of one million riyals ($266,567) and 1,000 lashes after prosecutors challenged an earlier sentence of seven years and 600 lashes as too lenient. His public flogging in 2015 generated a global outcry. In 2019, then US vice president Mike Pence urged Saudi Arabia to release Badawi.

       Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2022