Human rights protesters rallied outside the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington on Thursday, calling for freedom for jailed blogger Raif Badawi.

Embassy guards refused to accept a petition from the group, furiously demanding they leave the embassy’s foyer and remove themselves from its steps.

“Journalism is not a crime! Stop the torture in Saudi Arabia!” the protesters, who were mostly affiliated with antiwar group Code Pink, chanted from a sidewalk.

Badawi was arrested in 2012 and ultimately sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes – to be doled out in weekly installments of 50 – after setting up a website that hosted criticism of the authoritarian country’s religious leaders and allegedly insulting Islam.



His defense attorney, Waleed Abu al-Khair, later was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the U.S. ally for crimes that reportedly include “antagonizing international organisations against the kingdom” and “'incitement of public opinion against authorities.”

The Saudi Supreme Court on Sunday upheld Badawi’s sentence, which the U.S. State Department has denounced as "inhumane" and "brutal."

Protesters said hostile treatment from embassy guards was characteristic of the absolute monarchy’s approach to dissent.

“This is how the Saudis treat people,” protester Tighe Barry shouted after a standoff about whether he would move a few inches farther from the embassy.



“Obviously the embassy acts just like the thugs inside Saudi Arabia,” Code Pink leader Medea Benjamin loudly agreed.

A Secret Service officer arrived, but did not intervene aside from warning protesters not to lay on the sidewalk. A guard and Barry unsuccessfully recommended the other be arrested. “You were violating my civil rights, mister,” the protester said, alleging he was shoved while allegedly trespassing.

“End Saudi rule!” the protesters chanted, expanding their complaints to touch on U.S. military assistance, the Saudi bombing campaign in Yemen and Saudi donations to American universities.



People entering or exiting the embassy generally ignored the protesters and declined to accept the petition. A few smiling men in suits watched from embassy windows.

Some of the same protesters rallied outside the embassy in January, when one participant dressed as a Saudi official. The Saudi Embassy in France also has been targeted, with topless women last month burning the Saudi flag to gain attention for Badawi. Protesters have staged weekly protests at the embassy in Berlin.

After efforts to hand the petition to officials failed Thursday, two protesters walked around the embassy and left the papers at the entrance of a parking lot. A security guard asked that the abandoned petition not be photographed.



A petition urging Saudi Arabia to respect free speech was left near an embassy security guard at the entrance of a parking lot. Steven Nelson for USN&WR

It’s unclear if embassy staff retrieved the document. The diplomatic post’s media relations team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.