Saudi king 'halts flogging of blogger facing 1,000 lashes' after Middle Eastern country accused of 'outrageous inhumanity.

(by Daily mail)

An internet blogger facing 1,000 lashes for criticising clerics in Saudi Arabia was given new hope last night after the apparent intervention of the king.

Bowing to massive international pressure, King Abdullah has referred the case of Raif Badawi to the country's supreme court.

There has been no official statement from the Saudi government on the monarch's intervention, revealed by Mr Badawi's wife, Ensaf.

Earlier yesterday Saudi Arabia was accused of 'outrageous inhumanity' after it delayed the father of three's flogging sentence…so his wounds could heal before he was whipped again. 

Mr Badawi, 31, has won support from governments and human rights groups around the world after he was sentenced to ten years in prison, a £177,000 fine and the lashes.

His official crime was to insult Islam but supporters say his real offence was to criticise the country's powerful Sunni clerics on his blog. He faces 50 lashings every Friday for the next 18 weeks.

Amnesty, which has adopted Mr Badawi as a prisoner of conscience, said he was taken out of his cell in Jeddah yesterday and examined by a doctor who decided that the wounds from his first set of 50 lashes last week had not healed. 

He recommended the next round of lashes be delayed to next week.

Leaked video footage taken on a mobile phone is believed to show the first flogging session, as a shackled and standing Mr Badawi is hit on his legs and back by a policeman with a switch.

Mr Badawi's wife has fled to Canada with their children. She says he started a forum that was simply meant to encourage discussion of the Muslim faith. After seeing the video, she said: 'Every lash killed me.'

His treatment renewed global anger about the case. 

'Not only does this postponement expose the utter brutality of this punishment, it underlines its outrageous inhumanity,' said Amnesty's Said Boumedouha. 

'The notion that Raif Badawi must be allowed to heal so that he can suffer this cruel punishment again and again is macabre and outrageous.'

UN officials say the flogging breaches international law as a 'cruel and unusual punishment'.

The Foreign Office says it will continue to raise the case.