Manama: Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court has upheld all the sentences pronounced by a lower court against Raif Badawi, the founder of Saudi Liberal Network.
The court reached its decision after five “highly-qualified with vast experiences judges” studied the 70-page verdicts for three months, local daily Okaz reported on Sunday.
The ruling by the Supreme Court, the highest in the kingdom, is final and cannot be appealed or challenged.
The lower court had sentenced Badawi to five years in jail and a SR 1 million (Dh9,79,414) fine for launching the Saudi Liberal Network. The court also issued another five — year jail term and 1,000 lashes to be given out 50 at a time over 20 weeks.
The lashing is to take place on Fridays at most once a week in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, his hometown, the court said.
The two jail sentences are separate and will have to be served consecutively.
The defendant was also banned from travel abroad for ten years while the controversial website was shut down and the laptop he used confiscated.
Badawi received the first 50 lashes on January 9, but subsequent rounds of punishment were postponed on medical grounds.
According to the court papers, Badawi who was arrested in June 2012 and charged with disobeying his father — a crime in Saudi Arabia — and cybercrimes. Authorities say he used his website to denigrate religious values and scholars and to attack official entities, including the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
The public prosecution presented 25 “derogatory posts” published on the site, the daily said.
International pressure to have Badawi pardoned has been resisted by Saudi Arabia, saying it rejected interference in its domestic affairs and attacks on its justice system.
In March, Riyadh recalled its ambassador to Stockholm, accusing Sweden of “flagrant interference” in its affairs after Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstroem criticised Saudi laws.
In April, Saudi ambassador in Ottawa Naif Bin Bandar Al Sudairi warned Canada to stop criticising his country’s court decision against Badawi.
“The kingdom does not accept any form of interference in its internal affairs and rejects ... the attack on the independence of its justice system,” Al Sudairi said.
