Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird holds a press conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on Friday, Dec. 19, 2014. Baird has raised concerns with a Saudi prince about the flogging sentence handed down to a blogger with family in Quebec. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
January 22, 2015 - 10:32 AM
OTTAWA - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has raised concerns with a Saudi prince about the flogging sentence handed down to a blogger with family in Quebec.
A government official, speaking on condition they not be named, says Baird raised Canada's concerns about blogger Raif Badawi with Prince Turki Al Faisal, a member of the House of Saud.
Baird raised the case during a bilateral meeting with the prince, one of several he had Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Badawi was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for writing on a liberal blog he founded, and fined more than $300,000.
The 32-year-old father of three received the first 50 lashes on Jan. 9, but his second set was postponed last week for medical reasons.
In a previous written statement, Baird condemned the sentence and called for clemency.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2015