Saudi blogger Badawi, a fighter for free speech
DUBAI (AFP) -
Saudi Arabian blogger Raef Badawi, who could face another round of flogging on Friday for "insulting Islam", is a fighter for free speech whose health is worsening, his wife says.
His sentence of 1,000 lashes has drawn worldwide outrage and been dismissed as "cruel and inhuman" by UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.
The first 50 lashes of his sentence were carried out in public on January 9.
Badawi, born on January 13, 1984, is the father of two girls aged 11 and seven with his wife Ensaf Haidar, his teenage sweetheart.
They married in 2001 and also have a 10-year-old son.
"Raef is very, very respectful. A very tender father. He is an amazing man," Haidar told AFP from Quebec, Canada, where she and the children have sought asylum.
The clean-shaven 31-year-old Badawi, who loves to read, studied economics and ran an English-language and computer learning institute, his wife said.
But he found his calling as a writer, focusing on free speech.
"He wanted dialogue among people. He wanted free speech and rights for women and all human beings. This is what always motivated him" and is why he created the Saudi Liberal Network, Haidar said.
Paris-based watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) described the Internet site which Badawi co-founded as "an online discussion network whose aim is to encourage political, religious and social debates in Saudi Arabia".
RSF last year named Badawi one of three winners of its press freedom prize.
- 'Day of liberalism' -
He was in jail at the time, serving a 10-year sentence following his June, 2012 arrest under cybercrime provisions.
A judge ordered the website shut down after it criticised Saudi Arabia's notorious religious police.
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