Blogger fails to have 1,000-lashes sentence overturned

Saudi Arabia's supreme court has upheld a sentence of 1,000 lashes and 10 years' jail against blogger Raef Badawi on charges of insulting Islam.

Raef Badawi failed in his Supreme Court appeal today to overturn the ruling handed down last year.

The judge also upheld his sentence of 10 years in prison.

Mr Badawi is an activist and creator of the website Free Saudi Liberals. A judge ordered the website shut down after it criticised Saudi Arabia's notorious religious police.

Mr Badawi has already received 50 of his lashes but ill health has meant the remainder of his punishment has been postponed.

"This is a final decision that is irrevocable," his wife Ensaf Haidar said from Canada, where she has sought asylum with the couple's three children.

"This decision has shocked me."

Badawi received the first 50 lashes of his sentence outside a mosque in the Red Sea city of Jeddah on January 9 this year.

The following two weekly rounds of punishment were postponed on medical grounds.