Samar Badawi, a prominent Saudi human rights advocate – and the sister of jailed blogger Raif Badawi – has been freed on bail after being arrested and held briefly in the same prison as her brother.
Activists reported on Wednesday that Badawi had been released and was now back at home with her infant daughter. But she has been ordered to report to a Jeddah police station on Thursday with her lawyer to face further interrogation.
News of her detention on Tuesday prompted anger from human rights groups in the Gulf and abroad. Raif Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, said Samar had been arrested and transferred to Dhaharan central prison after four hours of questioning.
According to Haidar, Amnesty International and the Raif Badawi Foundation – a Canadian advocacy group – Samar is believed to have been arrested for posting to a Twitter account used to campaign for the release of her former husband, Waleed Abu al-Khair, and for publishing of photo of him in jail.
Urgent: #Samar_Badawi was arrested on the charge of directing @WaleedAbulkhair twitter account. pic.twitter.com/GW1Jjwt6K2
— Ensaf haidar (@miss9afi) January 12, 2016
Abu al-Khair is a Saudi human rights lawyer currently serving a 15-year sentence, in part for defending Raif Badawi.
In a statement, Amnesty called Samar’s arrest “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”.
Raif Badawi has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia since 2012 and was sentenced in 2014 by a Saudi court to 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam and criticising the regime on his blog. He received 50 lashes just over one year ago. The fact that he has not been lashed again since is said by sources in Riyadh to be the result of discreet but heavy political pressure from the US.
His wife came to Canada with the couple’s three children in 2013 and has been a tireless campaigner for his release.
Raif Badawi’s imprisonment has received condemnation from human rights groups and others abroad and in Canada, though he is not a Canadian citizen.
Canada’s foreign affairs minister, Stéphane Dion, discussed Badawi’s case with his Saudi Arabian counterpart when he visited Ottawa in December.
In February, before the Liberals’ 19 October federal election win, the future prime minister Justin Trudeau met with Haidar and expressed support for Raif Badawi’s cause, though he told the Canadian Press last month he had no “immediate plans” to personally intervene on his behalf.
On Tuesday, the Center for Inquiry, an American advocacy group, also called on the US State Department “to bring to bear what diplomatic power they have to press Saudi Arabia to release Samar”.
La soeur de @raif_badawi est arrêtée. @HillaryClinton @MichelleObama Samar Badawi: arrested https://t.co/ShMrfnpeAI pic.twitter.com/umvmwlJbXC
— Evelyne Abitbol (@EvelyneAbitbol) January 12, 2016
Samar received the 2012 International Women of Courage award for her efforts to promote women’s equality in Saudi Arabia.
