Saudi Arabia has postponed for a third week in a row the flogging of a blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam, his wife said.

Raef Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, added that the reason why he was not flogged was unclear.

The 30-year-old received the first 50 lashes of his sentence outside a mosque in the Red Sea city of Jeddah on 9 January.

The next round of the punishment was postponed for two weeks on medical grounds.

Badawi’s case has prompted worldwide outrage and criticism from the UN, US, the EU and others.

On Thursday, Haidar, who has sought asylum with the couple’s three children in Canada, voiced concerns about the health of her husband, who has been suffering from hypertension since his arrest in June 2012.

Ensaf Haidar, whose husband Raif Badawi is a Saudi rights activist who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes for criticising the kingdom’s clerics in his blog, thanks the Canadian people and international organisations for their help and support for her husband. Guardian

“Raef’s health condition is bad and it’s getting worse. I am very concerned about him,” she said. “It is impossible for a human being to withstand 50 lashes every week.”

Badawi co-founded the now-banned Saudi Liberal Network along with women’s rights campaigner Souad al-Shammari, who was also accused of insulting Islam and arrested last October.

The charges against Badawi were brought after his group criticised clerics and the kingdom’s notorious religious police, who have been accused of a heavy-handed enforcement of sharia law.

Amnesty said on Thursday that Badawi could suffer “debilitating long-term physical and mental damage” from continued flogging, which violates international law.

“Raef Badawi is a prisoner of conscience, whose only ‘crime’ was to set up a website for public discussion,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa director.