A blogger named Raif Badawi has received a 10 year sentence and 1000 lashes for advocating freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia. This disturbing film shows him receiving the first fifty of these on Friday as crowds chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is great). The Saudi government is a strategic ally, oil supplier and lucrative market for the US, Britain and other western countries and its foreign minister was present at the solidarity rally in Paris today. One woman there carried a placard declaring: “I am Raif Badawi, the Saudi journalist who was flogged.” Others protested at his presence, highlighting the double standards of western countries who condemn brutal attacks on freedom of expression while upholding repressive regimes
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 23:59:38 +0000