Saudi authorities expelled the Canadian ambassador and announced other retaliations this week.
By Fabio Bosco,
August 8, 2018
Among them investment and trade freeze, the suspension of direct flights between Riyadh and Toronto, halting medical assistance for Saudis in Canada and transferring 15,000 Saudi students out of Canadian universities.
The crisis started by two tweets the Canadian Foreign Minister posted demanding freedom for activist Samar Badawi and her brother Raif.
On July 1, 2018 Canada granted citizenship to Raif Badawi’s wife and children.
The Prince Mohammad Bin Salman committed himself to modernize the country but little has changed regarding democratic liberties.
Samar Badawi and Nassima Al-Sadah are feminist activists arrested in July.
Samar Badawi and Nassima Al-Sadah are feminist activists arrested in July.
They joined the campaign to allow women to drive cars.
Her brother Raif Badawi is in jail since 2014.
Her brother Raif Badawi is in jail since 2014.
He was sentenced to a 10-year term in prison, one thousand slashes and a US$ 266,000 fine for his blog called Free Saudi Liberals.
Canada imports from Saudi Arabia 9% of its oil needs and exports around US$ 4 billion in military armored vehicles employed in the war in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia has already retaliated both Sweden in 2015 and Germany in 2017 for criticism about human rights violations.
The IWL-FI supports freedom for the Badawi and all political prisoners in Saudi Arabia!
