Saudi Arabia Saturday strongly condemned reports by some media outlets over Raef Mohammad Badawi, a citizen who was sentenced for 10 years and 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam.
Saudi Arabia "cannot believe and strongly disapproves what has been addressed in some media outlets" about Badawi and the judicial sentence he has received, a source at the foreign ministry was quoted by the official SPA news agency as saying.
"While we regret the aggressive attacks these media have leveled against the Kingdom and its Judiciary system, the Kingdom assures at the same time that it rejects ... any interference in its internal affairs," said the source.
Saudi Arabia accepts neither any impingement on its sovereignty nor encroachment on the impartiality and independence of judiciary system, he added.
Badawi, a writer and human rights activist, has been sentenced for 10 years and condemned to 1,000 lashes to be executed over separated periods of time, as well as closure of his Saudi liberate network website on charges on insulting Islam and offending a religious authority.
"Judges have absolute powers in their sentencing; and the Kingdom emphatically assures that all cases under review at courts are dealt with impartially without distinctions or exceptions," said the source.
He added that Saudi Arabia unequivocally rejectED any aggression under the pretext of human rights. The Saudi constitution originates from the Islamic Sharia which enshrines one's sacred rights to life, property, honor, and dignity.
Saudi Arabia has been one of the first states to promote and support human rights and has respected all international conventions congruent with the Islamic Sharia.
Though these commitments are more than obvious, some international quarters and some media, regrettably, have emptied human rights of their sublime meanings. Instead, such quarters and media attempted to politicize and abuse those rights to serve aggressions against right of states to sovereignty, under standards that cannot be described except by their double and selective nature to serve political ends, said the source.