I'd be surprised if anyone, including those at the top who choose whom to be 'friends' with are under any illusions as to the character of Saudi Arabia. After all 15 of the 19 hijackers of the 911 attacks were Saudi as was the main man himself but what happened to that country....? Nothing - instead Iraq got attacked, and see what that lead to.
The alliance (not friendship) is because of economic and military strategy and unfortunately those factors mean turning a blind eye to this type of incident.
It's a poor state of affairs but Saudi hold some of the cards in this game and we just have to live with it. Personally I cannot feel highly enough about the bravery of the guy who got the lashes as he must have known what would happen but he pressed on regardless, hopefully others can and will continue and it will cause a change in that country from within which is where it needs to come from, not from outside.