Free Raif: Stop 50 more lashes scheduled tomorrow

Free Raif: Stop 50 more lashes scheduled tomorrow

Dear Tracy, He's in a cell tonight - bracing for a flogging. Tomorrow, Raif Badawi - a blogger in Saudi Arabia - is scheduled to face another 50 lashes as part of a brutal sentence of 10 years and 1,000 lashes he received for publishing a website that encourages social and political debate. Amnesty is waging an all-out campaign to release Raif and stop the floggings. Please support our efforts to fight for Prisoners of Conscience like Raif. Donate now. Your support makes a difference: $25 can help Amnesty bundle and send 200 letters from activists to Saudi authorities to stop Raif's flogging. $50 can help activists make 1,500 phone calls to the Saudi Embassy. $75 can sponsor our next action outside the Saudi Embassy in D.C. $250 can sponsor a human rights expert to continue applying "grasstops" pressure on Saudi authorities. Our window of time to act is critical. More floggings could cause debilitating long-term physical and mental damage. A doctor that Amnesty spoke with said the second set of lashes is likely to be worse than the first: Dr. Juliet Cohen, head of doctors for Freedom from Torture, reported on the physical and psychological damage that flogging will have on Raif. In a report commissioned by Amnesty, she wrote, "The more blows are inflicted on top of one another, the more chance of open wounds being caused. This is important because they are likely to be more painful and at risk of infection." Raif is scheduled to be flogged another 950 times over the next 19 weeks. Please help stop it and see that he is released. Support Amnesty's efforts. With hope for justice, Jasmine Heiss Senior Campaigner, Individuals at Risk Amnesty International USA