Amnesty International has put out an urgent appeal to have tomorrow’s flogging of Raif Badawi stopped.
AI said in a statement issued today:
We need you to put Raif’s case in the headlines once again.
Last weekend, Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court upheld the ruling against Badawi, the imprisoned blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes and a decade in prison for advocating free speech and political debate in the country.
The court’s decision is irreversible – it basically means that the judges are satisfied that Raif’s punishment matches the evidence against him. He can’t appeal the decision.
In reality, this means that Raif could be flogged in public 50 times tomorrow morning.
Please contact the Saudi Arabian Embassy in the UK and ask them to halt the flogging.
Raif has been jailed for over a year now. He was flogged in a Jeddah square 50 times in January – and was due to be publicly flogged on a weekly basis thereafter, a process that was abandoned initially ‘on medical grounds’ (the wounds hadn’t ‘healed enough’ for him to be lashed again) – in the midst of international outcry over his case.
Ahead of the flogging planned for midday tomorrow (10am UK time), we need you to contact the Saudi Arabian Embassy.
1. Call them
If you have ten minutes to spare, please call the Embassy on 02079173288
The Embassy is only open between 9am and 4pm; there is no voicemail system to leave a message outside of these hours.
There are only a couple of simple asks to the staff answering the phone:
1. Ask them to ensure that Saudi Arabia doesn’t flog Raif tomorrow
2. Ask that Saudi Arabia releases him unconditionally
We appreciate this is a tall ask but if enough of us call the Embassy today and tomorrow morning, we can really get the message across that thousands of us here in the UK support Raif’s freedom and are concerned for his wellbeing.
2. Tweet them
If you have a couple of minutes, please tweet the Embassy:
Tweet now – Please halt flogging of #RaifBadawi, @SaudiEmbassyUK – & release him immediately
Hat tip: AgentCormac