Saudi Arabia confirms 10-year travel ban for freed blogger Raif Badawi

Saudi Arabia confirmed Saturday a 10-year travel ban for freed blogger and human rights activist Raif Badawi, who has become a symbol of freedom of expression around the world.

"The sentence handed down to Raif was 10 years in prison followed by a travel ban for the same length of time. The court ruling holds up and is final," an interior ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

"Therefore, he cannot leave the kingdom for another 10 years unless a (royal) pardon is issued," the official said, a day after Badawi was released from detention.

After 10 years in prison for blasphemy Badawi was released on Friday.

The winner of the Reporters Without Borders prize for press freedom was arrested and detained in Saudi Arabia in 2012 on charges of "insulting Islam".

At the end of 2014, Badawi, now 38, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 50 lashes a week for twenty weeks.

His first flogging in Jeddah square in Saudi Arabia shocked the world and was described by the United Nations as "cruel and inhuman". After the outcry, he was not lashed again.