News - Middle East: After 10 years in prison , Saudi blogger and human rights activist Raif Badawi, was released on Friday.

"Raif called me. He is free," his wife Ensaf Haidar, who lives in Canada with their three children and had been fiercely advocating for his release, told AFP.

Badawi's release was also confirmed by a Saudi security official who said on condition of anonymity that "he was released today.

"I jumped when I found out. I couldn't believe it. I can't wait to see my dad, I'm so excited," one of his daughters, Nawja Badawi, 18, told AFP.

The winner of the Reporters Without Borders prize for press freedom, who is now 38 years old, was arrested and detained in Saudi Arabia in 2012 on charges of "insulting Islam," and at the end of 2014 was sentenced to 10 years in prison as well as 50 lashes a week for twenty weeks.

His first flogging in Jeddah square in Saudi Arabia in 2015 shocked the world, and was described by the United Nations as "cruel and inhuman." After the outcry, he would not be lashed again.

Amnesty International welcomed the news, saying that Mr. Badawi had been jailed “solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression.”

“His ongoing detention reveals the Saudi Arabian authorities’ utter contempt for the right to liberty, freedom of expression and even their own laws,” the group wrote on Twitter.

Canada's Quebec province has paved the way for Badawi to come to this country if he chooses by placing him on a priority list of potential immigrants for humanitarian reasons.

No details of his release conditions were immediately available.

But Amnesty noted that the Saudi blogger could still face a 10-year ban on all travel outside Saudi Arabia following his release.

Source: Agencies