Saudi blogger Raif Badawi has been released from prison in Saudi Arabia after serving a 10-year sentence for advocating an end to religious influence on public life, his wife said Friday, according to a report in the AFP news agency.

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

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

Badawi served a 10-year sentence after being convicted in 2012 of insulting Islam and breaking Saudi Arabia's technology laws with his liberal blog. He also was sentenced to 1,000 lashes, spread over 20 instalments, and fined $266,000.

The winner of the Reporters Without Borders prize for press freedom 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.

In June of 2015, Saudi Arabia's supreme court upheld the sentence against Badawi, who ran a website called Free Saudi Liberals. In December of that year, he began a hunger strike after being transferred to a new isolated prison.

No details of his release conditions -- including a possible 10-year travel ban -- were immediately available.

Amnesty International said in an email to AFP that it would "actively work to have any conditions lifted."

Western governments condemned Badawi's treatment over the years, and rights groups including Amnesty International campaigned for his release. Then-Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom accused Saudi Arabia of handing a "medieval" punishment to Badawi.

(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)