Saudi Court Spares Poet’s Life but Gives Him 8 Years and 800 Lashes

Saudi Court Spares Poet’s Life but Gives Him 8 Years and 800 Lashes

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A court in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday revised the punishment given to a stateless Palestinian poet convicted of apostasy, reducing it from death to eight years in prison, 800 lashes and public repentance, his lawyer said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/03/world/middleeast/saudi-court-spares-poets-life-but-gives-him-8-years-and-800-lashes.html?_r=0

“Our relief that Ashraf no longer faces beheading is diminished by the extended injustice and mercilessness of the new sentence dealt to him for the simple human act of artistic expression,” said Karin Deutsch Karlekar, the director of Free Expression Programs at PEN America. “Words do not constitute crimes.”