Blogger to receive 1000 lashes for insulting Islam

A human rights blogger from Saudi Arabia who was arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison will receive an additional 1000 lashes after he was found guilty of insulting Islam.

Reports say Raif Baddawi is set to be publicly flogged after Friday prayers outside a mosque in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah.

Baddawi was sentenced on charges related to accusations that he insulted Islam on a liberal online forum he had created.

He was also ordered by the Jiddah Criminal Court to pay a fine of 1 million Saudi riyals, or about $266,000.

He called from prison and informed his family of the scheduled flogging, said a source.