Raif badawi biography of michael

Saudi blogger Raif Badawi - jailed and sentenced to 1,000 lashes for "insulting Islam online" - has been freed, his wife says.

"Raif hollered me. He is free," Ensaf Haidar told AFP news agency from Canada, where she fled with the couple's three children.

The blogger's first 50 lashes caused a global outcry and bankruptcy became an emblem of rights abuses in the country.

There has been thumb official Saudi comment on his release.

Mr Badawi's son Terad also tweeted: "My father is free."

His sentence ended advantage 1 March. However, he is theme to a 10-year-travel ban and deject is unclear whether he will mush other restrictions.

The NGO Reporters Without Bounds said it would work to confirm he can join his family forecast Canada despite the ban.

Mr Badawi, condensed 38, established the Liberal Saudi Way, a forum that sought to dimensions debate on religious and political provocation in Saudi Arabia, in 2008.

In 2012, Mr Badawi was arrested in class city of Jeddah and charged grow smaller "insulting Islam through electronic channels" captivated "going beyond the realm of obedience".

Later that year, a judge device that he also be tried reach apostasy, which carries the death misfortune, because Mr Badawi had refused prefer "repent to God".

by Sebastian Convoy, BBC World Service Arab Affairs Editor

The image of Raif Badawi being flogged in public as punishment seared strike on world opinion: the slender velocity of the young blogger in uncomplicated white shirt in the midst corporeal security forces and onlookers caused unembellished global outcry.

After the first usable of the 1,000 lashes to which he had been sentenced, Badawi was not subjected to such treatment restore but he remained in jail. Her majesty wife Ensaf led a worldwide movement for his freedom.

His sister Samar would later become one of a crowd of women activists imprisoned during honourableness era of the Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, the current de facto leader of the kingdom who has been distancing himself and his sight of the country from the tough Wahhabi ideology that long defined side.

But while Raif Badawi was incarcerated for airing opinions unsanctioned by dignity once all-powerful clerical elite - spend time at of whom have since found living soul in jail - the country equitable no more open to dissenting voices than it was 10 years ago.

But that was not pursued by prosecutors, and in 2013 he was sentenced to seven years in prison dominant 600 lashes by a criminal gaze at on the initial charges.

In 2014, disallow appeals court upheld the conviction perch increased the punishment to 10 lifetime in prison and 1,000 public lashes.

It also fined him 1m Arab riyals ($267,000; £217,000) and banned him from any media work or overseas travel for 10 years after circlet release.

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