Reports confirm that the Royal Office has referred the sentence of 1000 lashes against Saudi human rights defender Raif Badawi to the Supreme Court in Riyadh. The referral happened before 9 January 2015, when he received 50 lashes in public outside Al-Jafali mosque in Jeddah.

In addition, reliable information said that the prison doctor requested that the flogging to be postponed, as Badawi is still suffering from the first 50 lashes.

Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in prison, 1000 lashes, a 10-year travel ban to start on expiration of his jail sentence, a ban on using media outlets and a fine of one million Saudi Riyals (about US$266,600) in connection with the creation of a critical website, Liberal Saudi Network, and his calls for reforms in the Kingdom. For more information kindly see the following appeal: https://www.gc4hr.org/news/view/868

The Monitor for Human Rights in Saudi Arabia (MHRSA) and the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), while welcoming the postponement of the flogging, call on the Saudi government to release Raif Badawi immediately and without any condition, in addition to freeing all other unjustly detained human rights defenders and activists in Saudi Arabia.