Detained blogger and human rights defender Raif Badawi was the winner of the European Parliament 2015 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. He is co-founder and editor of the website Liberal Saudi Network, an on-line forum created to foster political and social debate in Saudi Arabia.

On 16 December 2015, Raif Badawi’s wife accepted the award, on her husband’s behalf, at a ceremony in Strasbourg. She said, “Raif is not a criminal…He is a writer and a free thinker: that is all. Raif Badawi’s crime is being a free voice in a country which does not accept anything other than a single opinion and a single thought.”

When announcing the winner on 29 October 2015 Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, described Badawi as “a symbol and an inspiration”. He called him “an extremely good man, an exemplary man who has had imposed on him one of the most gruesome penalties,” one that “can only really be described as brutal torture.” 

The Sakharov Prize, established in 1988, is awarded each year by the European Parliament to honour individuals and organisations defending human rights and fundamental freedoms.

In 2012 Raif Badawi was arrested after he set up a website that was critical of the Saudi authorities and called for reforms in Saudi Arabia. In 2014 he 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).

On 9 January 2015, he received 50 lashes in public. In June 2015 the Supreme Court ratified his sentence and the lashing against him are set to resume.

In February 2015 the European Parliament adopted a resolution strongly condemning the flogging of Badawi as “a cruel and shocking act” and calling on the Saudi Arabian authorities “to release him immediately and unconditionally as he is considered a prisoner of conscience, detained and sentenced solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression”.

While the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) welcomes the honouring of Raif Badawi for his work and congratulates him on winning the Sakharov Award, it takes this opportunity to call on the Saudi Authorities to ensure his immediate release and the dropping of all charges against him.