Saudi blogger Raif Badawi’s wife Ensaf Haidar told the world on March 11 that he had been freed from Saudi prison. His 10 year sentence ended on March 1 — a day that came and went as people searched online for any word of his circumstances.

Searching tonight for an update, we share the good news that Raif Badawi in no longer detained in Saudi prison.

However, he is facing a 10-year foreign travel ban that would permit him to join his wife and three children in Canada. The founder in 2008 of the Liberal Saudi Network, a forum that encouraged debate on religious and political matters in Saudi Arabia, is not permitted to have any affiliation with media.

The January 2015 day Badawi was brutally flogged in public, receiving the first round of 50 of the 1,000 lashes he was sentenced to receive was a hideous spectacle captured on cell phones.

Following the case closely from its inception, my own visceral reaction was so strong I could not bear to watch the lashes that could have killed him. Honestly, I cannot believe that he is alive, the act was so barbaric.

The global outcry against the unmerciful brutality Raif Badawi experienced was so intense, that he was never flogged again.

AOC has videos of women being flogged in Sudan — video files transmitted to me personally as raw files — because the Sudanese government under Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir kept demanding that YouTube take them down. What Raif Badawi was subjected to defies description.

Being best bros with the Saudis, the Trump administration did nothing to help the imprisoned activists — including Raif Badawi. Immediately after being declared the winner in the 2020 presidential election, the Biden administration began working on their releases.

Amnesty International #LETTHEMFLY Campaign

Several prominent activists have gained their release from prison or — in the case of Raif Badawi — have completed their sentences. But, the travel ban out of Saudi Arabia remains a problem, and Amnesty International has just released on May 9, 2022 a new campaign called ‘#LetThemFly’.

"Saudi Arabian authorities' arbitrary use of travel bans against activists and human rights defenders reflects a bleak reality in the country, where dissenting voices continue to be ruthlessly silenced while leaders speak of progressive reform," Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement on Monday, citing the release of Raif Badawi.

Presently, there are 30 names in the focus of the #LETTHEMFLY campaign, including Raif Badawi’s sister Samar.