A Saudi blogger sentenced to 10
years in prison and 1,000 lashes for insulting Muslim clerics on
Thursday won the European Union's prestigious Sakharov Prize for
human rights, the Associated Press reported.
Raif Badawi was honored with the award as a symbol of the
fight for freedom of speech - an announcement greeted with a
standing ovation Thursday at the European Parliament assembly
in Strasbourg.
"I urge the king of Saudi Arabia to free him, so he can
accept the prize," Parliament Speaker Martin Schulz said.
Schulz described Badawi as "an extremely good man, an
exemplary man who has had imposed on him one of the most
gruesome penalties that exist in this country, which can only
be described as brutal torture."
Badawi is serving a 10-year sentence after being convicted
of insulting Islam and breaking Saudi Arabia's technology laws
with his liberal blog. He also was sentenced to 1,000 lashes,
spread over 20 installments, and fined $266,000. The flogging
has been suspended since he received 50 lashes in January, a
punishment that sparked international outrage.
Western governments have condemned Badawi's treatment, and
rights groups including Amnesty International have campaigned
for his release.
Badawi succeeds last year's winner Denis Mukwege, a
Congolese gynaecologist who founded a hospital for war gang-rape
victims in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The winner in 2013 was Pakistani Malala Yousafzai, the
17-year-old schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban for
campaigning for female education who went on to get the 2014
Nobel Peace Prize.
Previous recipients of the prize include Nelson Mandela and
Wei Jingsheng.
In 2012 it went to two jailed Iranian human rights
activists, film director Jafar Panahi and lawyer Nasrin
Sotoudeh.
The 2011 prize went to five representatives of the Arab
people from Libya, Egypt, Syria and Tunisia.
US whistleblower Edward Snowden was on the 2013 shortlist.
Italian anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano made the list in 2009.
The Sakharov Prize, named after the late Soviet scientist
and dissident Andrei Sakharov, was established by the European
Parliament in December 1988.
The winner receives 50,000 euros.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
