RESOLUTION # 2: RAIF BADAWI, SAUDI ARABIA:
The Assembly of Delegates of PEN International meeting at its 81st World Congress in
Québec City, Canada from 13 to 16 October 2015
In June 2012 the blogger and editor Raif Badawi was arrested under Saudi Arabia’s AntiCybercrime Law for his involvement with the Liberal Saudi Network, a progressive digital
forum set up to encourage social and political debate within the Kingdom. On 7 May 2014,
Jeddah’s Criminal Court found Mr. Badawi guilty of “insulting Islam” and “founding a liberal
website” and sentenced him to 10 years in prison, a fine of 1 million Saudi riyals, and 1,000
lashes. On 28 May, when Mr. Badawi received a written version of the verdict, decade-long
bans on travel and media participation post-release had been added to the sentence.
In January 2015, despite widespread international criticism of the verdict and sentence, Mr.
Badawi was flogged 50 times in public. Although there have been no further floggings, to
date the Saudi authorities have given no indication that they are willing to commute Mr.
Badawi’s sentence, so that he may join his wife, Ensaf Haidar, and three young children in in
the city of Sherbrooke, in the Province of Quebec, Canada. The government of Quebec has
already taken exceptional steps to expedite Mr. Badawi’s possible resettlement by issuing a
Certificat d’admission au Québec’ that would ensure his admission to the province once the
government of Canada grants him a visa.
Mr. Badawi is the recipient of Deutsche Welle's inaugural Freedom of Speech award, the
Franco-German Journalism Prize, the annual press freedom award from the Swedish
section of Reporters Without Borders, English PEN’s Pinter Prize and PEN Canada’s annual
One Humanity award, given to writers whose work “transcends the boundaries of national
divides and inspires connections across cultures.” After receiving the One Humanity award,
Mr. Badawi sent the following message to PEN members, via his wife: “We want life for
those who wish death to us; and we want rationality for those who want ignorance for us.”
PEN is also concerned by the detention of Mr. Badawi’s lawyer and brother-in-law, Waleed
Abu al-Khair a human rights activist, and a founding member of the Monitor of Human Rights
in Saudi Arabia. Mr. Abu al-Khair was arrested last year and sentenced to 10 years in jail on
charges that included showing disrespect to the Saudi authorities and creating an
unauthorized association.
The Assembly of Delegates of PEN International calls on the government of the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia to:
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immediately and unconditionally release Raif Badawi and his lawyer Waleed Abu alKhair, who are being held solely for their peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of
expression, and to drop all charges against them;
revoke the flogging sentence imposed on Mr. Badawi which is a violation of the absolute
prohibition in international law against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment;
provide both men with adequate medical treatment and unrestricted access to their
families and lawyers;
release the many other writers and activists currently detained in violation of their right to
freedom of expression;
take urgent steps to ensure that all individuals in Saudi Arabia are freely able to express
their peaceful opinions;
ratify, without reservation, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.