'My husband is being lashed to death… they are killing him more every week': Agony of wife of Saudi Arabian blogger who is being flogged 50 times every Friday for 'insulting Islam'

                         

Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years behind bars for 'insulting Islam' - but his wife Ensaf Haidar says all he did was write a blog about social change and human rights

The wife of a Saudi blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes ‘for insulting Islam’ today accused the government of killing her husband week by week - and spoke of her agony at ‘watching him die one lash at a time’.

Raif Badawi, who wrote a blog on human rights and social change, is being flogged 50 times every Friday for supposedly insulting religious figures and undermining the regime - a charge he and his wife Ensaf Haidar strenuously deny.

The first 50 of the lashes were inflicted in front of hundreds in the main square in Jeddah last week - and the same is due to happen again today, and for the next 18 weeks, until all 1,000 have been completed.

It is believed Raif, a 31-year-old father of three, will need hospital attention after each flogging; it has been suggested his body will not be able to sustain the assault over the coming weeks.

For Ensaf, almost 6,000 miles away in Quebec, it is too much to bear.

Speaking to the MailOnline, she said: ‘Saudi Arabia is endangering his health and life – if they go through with the whole 1,000 lashes, they are killing him more every week. 

'It is a criminal act.’

Ensaf and the couple's three children, Najwa, 11, Terad, 10, and Miriam, seven, have been living in a small town in Canada since November 2011.

They fled Saudi Arabia when Raif was arrested, spending two years living in Lebanon before being granted refugee status.

It means - although they are safe - none of them have seen Raif for more than four years and, since he was moved to a new prison two-and-a-half weeks ago, no one has spoken to him either.

However, Ensaf, 35, did have friends in the square last Friday - including Raif's sister.

'She unfortunately witnessed the flogging,' Ensaf said. 'She was there to try and support her brother.

'He was very strong - he was silent during the flogging.' 

But the advent of technology means Ensaf has also been able to see what happened to her husband.