Skip to main content

Blogger Could Be Severely Debilitated after 1,000 Lashes

CBN

Share This article

If Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi is forced to endure the 950 floggings left in his sentence, he could experience severe long-term physical and mental damage, according to a medical expert.

The report's release further validates the importance of a recent plea from a U.S. government panel offering to divide the lashes amongst themselves. The panel includes Christian, Muslim and Jewish members, each willing to take 100 of Badawi's 1,000 lashings sentence.

"His crimes were nothing more than exercising his fundamental international human rights to freedom of expression, freedom of speech and advocacy for reform in the kingdom," U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Chair Katrina Lantos-Swett told CBN News.

CBN News spoke with USCIRF Chair Katrina Lantos-Swett about Saudi blogger Raif Badawi's case and why they are offfering to take his lashes for him. Click play to watch.

Lantos-Swett is one of the commissioners offering to take some of Badawi's punishment.

"We felt that we wanted to do more than simply protest in words this very unjust punishment. We wanted to stand beside him and stand in his place," Lantos-Swett said.

"It has renewed my sensitivity and my awareness of how terrifying it is for victims of human rights abuses anywhere in the world to be at the mercy of these autocratic, dictitorial regimes that can trample on not only your rights and your freedoms but can brutalize your physical personage at their whim."

Badawi will be whipped 50 times a week for 20 consecutive weeks. The first lashing happened on January 9.

Dr. Juliet Cohen, who leads doctors at Freedom from Torture, said that the impact of a second set of lashes is likely to be even worse than the first.
 
"The more blows are inflicted on top of one another, the more chance of open wounds being caused. This is important because they are likely to be more painful and at risk of infection, which will cause further pain over a prolonged period as infection delays the wounds' healing," she said.

Badawi also has diabetes, which compromises his ability to heal and fight infection.

He was found guilty of insulting Islam in 2013, among other related charges and sentenced to seven years in prison with 600 lashes. A retrial resulted in an even harsher sentence: 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes.

Share This article