The wife of a Saudi human rights campaigner is warning that her husband may not survive the 50 lashes he is due to receive in Jeddah tomorrow.
There are renewed pleas to the Saudi Arabian authorities to abandon the public flogging of blogger Raif Badawi, who suffered the first instalment of 50 lashes of the 1,000 ordered last year by a Saudi court, for "insulting Islam".
His crime was to set up the Saudi Arabian Liberals website, for which he was also sentenced to 10 years in prison, and ordered to pay a fine of one million riyals (£133,000).
Amnesty International say the Saudi Arabia should heed the international outcry over the first round of corporal punishment administered after last prayers last Friday outside the Al-Juffali mosque in Jeddah.
Badawi's wife, Ensaf Haidar, currently in exile with their children in Canada, told Amnesty:
"Raif told me he is in a lot of pain after his flogging, his health is poor and I'm certain he will not be able to cope with another round of lashes. I told our children about the news last week so that they would not find out about it from friends at school. It is a huge shock for them. International pressure is crucial, I believe if we keep up the support it will eventually pay off. We must keep on fighting."
The governments of the USA, Canada, Germany and Norway among others, have issued statements condemning Badawi's flogging.
Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director Said Boumedouha said:
"The international community must keep up its pressure on the Saudi Arabian authorities. Raif Badawi's cruel and unjust punishment must be halted immediately."
Last week Ensaf Haidar accepted the Scottish Secular Society's (SSS) first Aikenhead award on behalf of her husband. It was named after Thomas Aikenhead, and Edinburgh University student who in 1697 became the last person to be executed in Britain for blasphemy.
The Saudi Arabian Embassy in London has declined to comment.
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