Prince Charles raises blogger case with Saudi king

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The Prince of Wales has offered new hope to the liberal writer ordered to be given 1,000 lashes in Saudi Arabia by intervening in his case with the royal family in Riyadh.
 
The Prince touched down in the Saudi capital on Tuesday for one of the most politically sensitive visits of his time as heir to the throne. Saudi Arabia is in the midst of huge political changes following the death of King Abdullah last month, with the new King Salman expected to be more conservative.
Raif Badawi has been sentenced to 1,000 lashes
Human rights groups also complained vociferously about the tributes paid to the late king in Britain, and were demanding the Prince raise human rights issues, including the flogging of Raif Badawi, 31, who criticised the religious establishment online.
The Prince rarely discusses the contents of his private conversations with other royals. However, on this occasion he is visiting at the request of the Government because of his close ties to the Saudi royal family, and he was accompanied by senior Foreign Office officials.
The Government has already raised Mr Badawi’s case.
A source said it was also raised by the Prince during his meeting with senior royals, including King Salman, and that he received a "friendly response".
The intervention will raise hopes among Mr Badawi’s family, including his wife and children who are now living in Canada, that the stay ordered on his flogging since he received the first batch of 50 in Jeddah a month ago would be made permanent.
So far, health reasons have been cited for not handing out any more.
Amnesty welcomed the Prince’s intervention. “This is of course very encouraging and very welcome news," Amnesty International UK’s director Kate Allen said.
“We still need the UK government to do more on Raif’s case – including specifically calling for him to be released – but Charles’ diplomatic intercession could help secure this man’s freedom.”
The Saudi royal family are sensitive about the country’s poor reputation for human rights, particularly its use of public beheadings, its imprisonment of dissenters and restricted rights for women. It says it is reforming at a pace that fits its own traditions.
It must also take care not to offend the powerful religious establishment, which guards its privileged role as guardian of public morals fiercely.
The Prince has brought up human rights issues in the past, Sir William Patey, a former ambassador, told the BBC in an interview. He said that as a fellow royal, the Prince was able to raise the issue without making his hosts "bristle".
Simon Collis, the British ambassador to Riyadh, said the Prince’s personal relationships could make a difference. "The importance of the royal family in this country means royal to royal links are of particular value," he said. "These kinds of visit are capable of having an impact."
King Abdullah had been seen as a reformer until the start of the Arab Spring, allowing wider political debate and encouraging women’s education. He also allowed women to vote in local elections, and brought them into the advisory council, the Shura.
But he cracked down after pro-democracy uprisings elsewhere in the region, arresting activists and suppressing dissent. He also maintained the ban on women driving, despite civil disobedience campaigns.
Two women, Loujain al-Hathloul and Maysaa al-Amoudi, have been in prison awaiting trial over a protest test drive since the beginning of December.
The new King Salman will have had to agree to his predecessor’s reforms as Crown Prince. His name has also been in the public eye since the start of the coalition against Isil for his links to Islamic charities that funded armed groups in Afghanistan, Bosnia and elsewhere.
Mr Collis said that critics of Saudi Arabia’s funding of radical groups in the past had to be set in the context of their "timelines" – that as around the world, policies changed after the 9/11 attacks of 2001.
He said the current stance of the kingdom was unambiguous. "We have in Saudi Arabia a key strategic partner, a key partner in the coalition against Isil, and in the fight against terrorism more generally," he said.
The Prince had his longest private meeting with Crown Prince Muqrin, now the formal heir to throne, and seen as a supporter of King Abdullah’s reforms.
Tomorrow he will be escorted round the historic site of Al-Ula, in northern Saudi Arabia, by Prince Sultan bin Salman, who as well as being son of the king and the tourism minister was also in his earlier days a scientist and the Muslim world’s first astronaut.
When he flew on the US space shuttle Discovery in 1985, he later rang the then Grand Mufti, a notorious conservative, to tease him that he had discovered that the earth was not, in fact, flat.
The most personal moment of the visit came at the meeting with Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, who thanked the Prince for having come in person to pay condolences on his father’s death.
"My father often talked of the Queen, and her mother," he said.
The Prince went on to dinner with Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of the king and one of the world’s richest men.
Prince Alwaleed is owner of a chain of hotels and television channels, and has been prominent in employing women. A long line-up of his women staff, fashionably dressed and conspicuously wearing neither the traditional gown, the abaya, nor a headscarf, were introduced to the Prince beforehand.

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