AN Australian man has been sentenced to 500 lashes and a year in prison after being convicted of blasphemy in Saudi Arabia.
The family of Mansor Almaribe, 45, will head to Canberra to plead for help. Officials in Canberra said they had been in touch with the Saudi authorities to request leniency.
Almaribe is from Shepparton in Victoria, Australia.
Reports said Almaribe had travelled to Mecca in Saudi Arabia for a pilgrimage. Although he was arrested nearly a month ago, details of the charges against him have not been made public.
The judge in Saudi Arabia, it is understood, initially handed down a sentence of two years in jail and 500 lashes, but later reduced the jail time.
Meanwhile, Almaribe’s family has made an emotional appeal to bring him home, fearing he will die in jail.
Isaam Almaribe, 21, said his father suffered from diabetes and had broken bones in his back and knees from a car accident in Australia.
“Dad told us ‘Take me out of here as soon as possible because if I stay here I will die’ – that’s how bad his situation is,” Isaam said.
“He couldn’t survive 50 lashes let alone 500 lashes,” he added.
Murray MP Sharman Stone said it was time for Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd to intervene.
Dr Stone is in talks with Mr Rudd’s office, as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, to negotiate with the Saudi Arabian authorities to have the sentence dropped or reduced, reports said.
She said the details of his offence were shady.
“Apparently he was in Medina with a group of fellow Shiites…and he was quoting out of a book which insulted the Prophet Muhammad’s companion. This is how it’s being described. Apparently this is a deeply offensive thing to do in the Medina apparently for people of Sunni Islamic philosophy or religion.
“He was selected to be kept in a police cell in prison in the 1st instance and then he was charged with this crime…of blasphemy.”
A spokeswoman for Kevin Rudd, Kate Sieper, said the Australian government was ‘very concerned’ about Almaribe’s wellbeing.
Almaribe arrived in Australia in 1999 from Iraq as a refugee and brought his family over in 2006.
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