Update: Samar Badawi has been released from her interrogation and is now free on bail.
As if the Saudi jailing and torture of Raif Badawi (you will recall he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1000 lashes merely for setting up a website and after receiving 50 lashes was so sick that further lashes were put on hold) isn’t bad enough, it seems that his eldest sister, Samar, and her young daughter have been detained.
According to Amnesty International’s bulletin, local activists report that:
…this morning Samar was arrested in Jeddah and transferred along with her two-year-old daughter Joud to a police station. She is believed to have been arrested at least partly in connection with her alleged role in managing a Twitter account campaigning for the release of her former husband, Waleed Abu al-Khair.
According to their bulletin:
Amnesty International is calling for all prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia to be immediately and unconditionally released. You can take action for all peaceful activists in Saudi Arabia.
Thankfully, the Globe and Mail reports that:
Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion did raise the matter with his Saudi counterpart, Adel Al Jubeir, when they met in Ottawa on Dec. 17.
So maybe it’s time Prime Minister Trudeau changed his “immediate plans” and call Saudi Arabian authorities on behalf of Badawi! Do Canadians really want to turn a blind eye to this?
This is awful. I think one of the ways you can judge the illegitimacy of the government is by the lengths they will go to to silence the voices of their people.
What did Princess Leia say? Something like, “The tighter your grip Vader, the more people will slip through your fingers.”