Vive Charlie Issue 18 | Page 43

FREE RAIF BADAWI

Aseem Trivedi is an independent cartoonist and free speech activist from New Delhi, India. He is creating a cartoon for each of the 50 lashes Raif Badawi has received. Above is number 23 in his series of 50. Vive Charlie will be featuring his cartoons each week so please follow him on Twitter.

@aseem_trivedi

Raif is not a criminal – he is a prisoner of conscience who called for free speech on his website. His treatment by authorities in Saudi Arabia has been nothing short of a vicious act of cruelty.

Raif was arrested in June 2012. In May 2014 he was found guilty of breaking Saudi Arabia’s strict technology laws and insulting Islamic religious figures by creating and managing an online forum.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, 1,000 lashes, a fine of 1 million Saudi Riyal (over a quarter of a million US dollars), and prevented from using any kind of media or travelling until 2034.