DUBAI, December 26 (RAPSI) – The Jidda court, which heard the appeal of blogger Raif Badawi against his seven year prison sentence, has recommended that he go before a high court on a charge of apostasy, which would carry the death penalty upon conviction, the Arabic news site Al Fajr has reported.

Badawi, born 1982, was arrested in June 2012 and charged with insulting and denouncing Islam (apostasy) through his Free Saudi Liberals website and in television comments.

In July, a court dismissed the apostasy charges but sentenced the blogger to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for insulting Islam. His lawyers filed an appeal, which was granted on December 12, and the case was returned for retrial.

Badawi’s wife, who is living with their children in Lebanon, said they hoped the court would mitigate his sentence. Instead, the court decided that his case should be heard by a high court because of the “extreme gravity of his crime.”

The charges of “abandonment of one’s religious faith, a political party, one’s principles, or a cause” carry a death sentence in Saudi Arabia.

Raif Badawi’s case has provoked a wave of criticism of Saudi Arabia in the United States and from international human rights organizations.