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. » | Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief | Sunday, June 07, 2015
