"Australian given 500 lashes for blasphemy in Saudi Arabia"
From
Reuters:
An Australian man has been sentenced to 500 lashes and a year in prison in Saudi Arabia for breaking the country's strict blasphemy laws during a Haj pilgrimage last month.
Australia's Department of
Foreign Affairs said it was very concerned about the well-being of the
man, named in media reports as Mansor Almaribe, a 45-year-old father of
five.
"The Australian Government
has a universal policy of condemning the use of corporal punishment
amounting to torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment," a spokeswoman for Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said in a
statement.
Australia's ambassador had contacted the Saudi government, seeking leniency, she added.
"Five
hundred slashes on his back and he has back problems. I wouldn't think
he'd survive 50," one of the man's sons, Mohammed Almaribe, told the Australia Broadcasting Corp.
A
spokesman from the Saudi justice ministry did not respond to calls and
messages for comment.
The Australian Associated Press said the man had
been accused of insulting the companions of the Prophet Mohammad.