STRASBOURG - Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for blasphemy, was awarded the European Parliament’s prestigious Sakharov human rights prize on Thursday. The 31-year-old blogger, who was arrested in 2012, is an outspoken advocate of free speech whose vicious public flogging in January, when he was subjected to a first round of 50 lashes, triggered an international backlash.–AFP
Announcing the award, parliament head Martin Schulz called on Saudi King Salman to immediately release Badawi, denouncing his sentence as “brutal torture” and demanding that Riyadh live up to Europe’s standards on the crucial question of human rights.