Current Cases

Background

Raif Badawi is a Saudi blogger and activist who co-founded and edited the web forum Liberal Saudi Network, an outlet that fostered political and social debate in Saudi Arabia. 

After organizing a 2012 online conference to mark a “day of liberalism”, he was arrested and charged with “insulting Islam,” “founding a liberal website,” and “adopting liberal thought.” Two years later, on May 7, 2014, Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in prison, 1000 lashes, and given a fine of 1 million Saudi riyals (CAD $291,700). 

Raif Badawi received PEN Canada’s One Humanity Award in 2014.

In fall 2015, PEN Quebec hosted the 81st PEN International Congress in Quebec City. The congress focused among others on the case of Raif Badawi, whose wife Ensaf and their children appeared at the Congress to speak on his behalf. 

When Badawi finished serving his 10-year sentence on February 28, 2022, Saudi officials refused to release him. Only after international calls for his release was Badawi released from prison on March 11, 2022, but he remains under a 10-year travel ban, preventing his reunion with family in Canada, as well as a 10-year ban on participating in visual, electronic, and written media. His lawyer, Waleed Abu Al-Khair, remains in prison.