Abdul Rahman Al-Qaradawi’s extradition from Lebanon to the UAE caused widespread alarm and outrage [Getty]
Twenty-eight Egyptian, Arab, and international human rights NGOs have issued a joint statement expressing “deep concern” over the fate of Abdulrahman Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian-Turkish poet who disappeared last Wednesday after being extradited from Lebanon to the United Arab Emirates.
In their statement, the organisations said that the deportation was an “alarming legal precedent” and a “flagrant misuse of international security agreements to settle political scores with dissidents”.
“It reflects a troubling trend of exploiting international security cooperation as a tool to suppress fundamental freedoms and restrict individuals’ right to express their opinions,” they added.
Al-Qaradawi, the son of late Muslim cleric Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, was detained in Lebanon on 28 December after he crossed into the country from Syria.
He was in Syria celebrating the success of the rebel overthrow of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad and made a video at the Umayyad Mosque criticising the governments of Egypt and the UAE.
The Lebanese cabinet decided to deport him to the UAE after the Gulf country requested his extradition, even though Qaradawi is not a resident or citizen of the UAE.
The legal tool used for this was the Arab Interior Ministers’ Council (AIMC), often known as the “Arab Interpol”, which allows Arab governments to extradite criminal suspects to each other. It has often been used against political dissidents however.
Before the deportation of Al-Qaradawi to the UAE, Amnesty International warned that he was at “real risk of enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment” in the Gulf state.
After the deportation, his account on the social media platform X disappeared, raising further fears for him.
The 28 human rights groups called on Emirati authorities “to immediately disclose the location and conditions of Abdulrahman Youssef Al-Qaradawi’s detention and to guarantee his right to communicate with his family and legal representation”.
They added that they held the UAE “fully accountable for his physical and mental well-being and demand his immediate and unconditional release” and called on the country to return him to Turkey, where he resides and holds citizenship.
They also called on the Turkish government to exert pressure on the UAE to obtain details about Al-Qaradawi’s fate “especially given the UAE’s notorious record of torturing and oppressing prisoners of conscience”.
The organisations which signed the statement include the Egyptian Human Rights Forum, the Egyptian Front for Human Rights, the Arab Centre for Law and Society Studies, and Human Rights Watch.
