Vice President Mike Pence demanded that Saudi Arabia release dissident blogger Raif Badawi, describing the case as a matter of religious freedom.
Pence’s words Thursday follow a diplomatic crisis last year after Canada demanded freedom for Badawi and his recently detained sister. Saudi Arabia expelled Canada’s ambassador, withdrew investments, and ordered Saudi students to return home.
Although Saudi Arabia is highly sensitive about the case, Pence said in Washington, “In Saudi Arabia, blogger Raif Badawi is still in prison for the alleged crime of criticizing Islam through electronic means,” describing Badawi and three dissidents in other countries.
“All four of these men have stood strong in defense of religious liberty, despite unimaginable pressure, and the American people stand with them,” Pence said. “The United States calls upon the governments of Eritrea, Mauritania, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia to respect the freedom of conscience and let these men go.”
Badawi was arrested in 2012 and later sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for “insulting Islam through electronic channels” and “going beyond the realm of obedience.” He had criticized powerful clerics as editor of news and commentary website Free Saudi Liberals.
An attorney who represented Badawi, Waleed Abu al-Khair, received 15 years in prison for crimes that included “antagonizing international organizations against the kingdom” and “’incitement of public opinion against authorities.”
The Saudi embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Badawi’s wife Ensaf Haider, who lives in Canada with the couple’s three children, told the Washington Examiner that Pence’s remark was “very important to me and my family.”
But it’s unclear if the vice president’s words can resolve the case. Lawmakers have pushed for his release for years, without success. In December, the Senate unanimously condemned Badawi’s detention in a resolution rebuking Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, for allegedly ordering the death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Haider unsuccessfully sought a meeting with President Trump during a February visit to Washington. “One phone call from the White House can free Raif,” she said. “While it is too late for Jamal Khashoggi, this brave citizen-journalist may yet still be saved.”
Badawi’s wife said Thursday she would like to meet with Trump following Pence’s remarks.
“I know only he has the power to release Raif,” she said.
Pence’s inclusion of Badawi in a list of four individuals targeted for their beliefs in four different countries as an unusual criticism of Saudi Arabia for Trump’s administration, which has maintained a close partnership with the oil-rich monarchy amid widespread condemnation of the Saudi human rights record.
Saudi Arabian officials have been very sensitive to criticism pertaining to Badawi. When Canada called for Saudi Arabia “to immediately release” Badawi last August, along with “all other peaceful human rights activists,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry responded by expelling Canadian Ambassador Dennis Horak.
“Any further step from the Canadian side in that direction will be considered as acknowledgment of our right to interfere in Canadian domestic affairs,” the Saudi government said at the time.
That sharp reaction fostered criticisms of Crown Prince Mohammad, 33, deepening his reputation as an impetuous and headstrong young leader, though the controversy paled in comparison to the ensuing outcry over the October murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Pence emphasized that Badawi is in jail for “the alleged crime of criticizing Islam through electronic means,” a clear jab at the Saudi Arabian legal system. He ranked Badawi’s case alongside three others: Abune Antonius, the Patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Church who has been under house arrest for 12 years “because he refuses to excommunicate critics of the government in his church;” Mauritanian blogger Mohammed Sheikh Mkhaitir, who “is still being held for criticizing the government’s use of Islam to justify discrimination;” and Pakistani professor Junaid Hafeez, who “remains in solitary confinement on unsubstantiated charges of blasphemy.”
“All four of these men have stood in defense of religious liberty — the exercise of their faith — despite unimaginable pressure, and the American people stand with them,” Pence said. “And so, today, the United States of America calls on the governments of Eritrea,Mauritania, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia to respect the rights of conscience of these men and let these men go.”
