A Saudi court has dismissed an apostasy case against Raif Badawi, an online activist whose views have upset the kingdom's religious conservatives.

The court's decision appears to have removed the threat of execution – since apostasy is a capital offence in Saudi Arabia – but Badawi, who was arrested last June, remains in jail facing other charges which include "setting up a website that undermines general security" and ridiculing Islamic religious figures (see earlier blogpost).

Badawi's website, "Saudi Arabian Liberals", published an article about Valentine's Day (celebration of which is banned in the kingdom). Another article, which mocked the kingdom's religious police, ended sarcastically with the words: "Congratulations to us for the Commission on the Promotion of Virtue for teaching us virtue and for its eagerness to ensure that all members of the Saudi public are among the people of paradise."

The BBC, citing "sources close to Mr Badawi" says he may now "be shuttled between various courts to keep him in prison without attracting the further international criticism that a guilty verdict might bring".

Badawi's case is one of several freedom-of-expression cases in the kingdom – and they seem to be becoming more frequent. Last month, prominent Saudi writer Turki al-Hamad was arrested in connection with a series of tweets. Last February, Hamza Kashgari, a poet and former newspaper columnist, was arrested in Malaysia and deported back to Saudi Arabia after being accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad on Twitter. He later "repented" but is still in jail.

Two Saudi rights activists, Mohammed al-Qahtani and Abdullah al-Hamid, are also facing a series of bizarre charges in connection with maligning religious and state officials.

In Saudi Arabia such cases are especially problematic because of the heavy penalties, the arcane court system and the legal uncertainties caused by a lack of written laws. However, elsewhere in the region growing numbers of people are being accused of "insulting" heads of state on the internet.

On Monday, Ahram Online reported that 24 "insulting-the-president" cases have been filed in Egypt during the six months since President Morsi's election – three of them filed by the prosecutor-general. Ahram points out that only four such cases came to court during Mubarak's 30-year rule.

The underlying problem here is that growing numbers of Arabs (emboldened partly as a result of the Arab Spring) are expressing their views in public and the internet has provided them with the means to do so. In many countries this would simply be a normal part of the public discourse but Arab regimes are still unaccustomed to it and some sections of society regard it as an unacceptable way to behave.

In the long run, the only solution is to accept dissent as a fact of life, but getting to that point is going to require a major adjustment – and nowhere more than in Saudi Arabia.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 23 January 2013.