Hundreds of writers around the world have joined human
rights groups in urging Saudi Arabia to release a poet who faces a death
sentence on charges of apostasy for his poetry.
Palestinian poet and artist Ashraf Fayadh, 32, was
sentenced to death by a court in the southwestern Saudi city of Abha this month
on a series of blasphemy charges,
The charges included insulting the "Divine
Self" and the Prophet Mohammed, mocking the Quran and spreading atheism.
His sister, Raeda Fayadh, appealed to King Salman bin
Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia to grant clemency to her brother in an
interview Monday with CNN.
She said her brother had done nothing wrong, having been
falsely accused by a man with a personal animosity toward him.
There was nothing blasphemous in her his writings, she
said, and those who had accused him were damaging the image of Saudi Arabia,
she said.
"He wrote in words that stupid people
misunderstood," she said.
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