Jailed blogger Raif Badawi's sister arrested, detained in same prison

(Image credit: Twitter.com/miss9afi)

published 13 January 2016

The sister of jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi has reportedly been arrested for posting a photo of her former husband on Twitter and asking for his release from prison.

Raif Badawi's wife, Ensaf Haidar, tweeted that his sister, Samar Badawi, is believed to have been arrested Tuesday. After hours of questioning, she was moved to the Dharhan central prison, where her brother is being held, The Guardian reports. Samar Badawi's former husband, Waleed Abu al-Khair, is a human rights lawyer, and is serving a 15-year sentence, partly for defending Raif Badawi. For her work to promote women's equality in Saudi Arabia, Samar Badawi received the 2012 International Women of Courage award.

After being found guilty of insulting Islam and criticizing the regime, Raif Badawi was sentenced in 2014 to 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes; last year, he received 50 lashes. His sentence has been condemned by leaders around the world, and his wife left Saudi Arabia for Canada, where she now lives with their three children and campaigns for his release. In a statement, Amnesty International called the detainment of Samar Badawi "the latest example of Saudi Arabia's utter contempt for its human rights obligations and provides further damning proof of the authorities' intent to suppress all signs of peaceful dissent."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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