Waleed Abu al-Khair, the Saudi Arabian lawyer, who is defending imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, has been conferred with the prestigious Ludovic Trarieux Prize for his work in defence of human rights. Al-Khair has long campaigned for reforms in the conservative kingdoms via his organization called Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia (MHRSA). Due to his activism he was handed a 15-year jail sentence by a Jeddah court last year.

Currently in jail himself, Al-Khair represented his brother-in-law Raif Badawi, who has been jailed for 10 years and sentenced to 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam.

Tidbits

• Ludovic Trarieux Prize is an an annual legal award. It was first won by Nelson Mandela in 1985, while he was in detention in apartheid South Africa.
• The prize is named after the 19th-century French lawyer Ludovic Trarieux, a human rights law pioneer.
• Al-Khair has previously received the Swedish Olof Palme Prize for defending human rights in Saudi Arabia.