The activist and published poet is the son of the former spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Yusuf al-Qaradawi [Getty/file photo]
Several activists in Lebanon have demonstrated outside Beirut’s Courts of Justice urging the release of Egyptian activist Abdel-Rahman al-Qaradawi, who was arrested over the weekend after returning from Syria.
The opposition activist and prominent figure of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution was arrested at the Masnaa border crossing with Lebanon, following coordination between Lebanese and Egyptian authorities.
Al-Qaradawi took part in celebratory events in Damascus to mark the toppling of Bashar al-Assad.
He was reportedly arrested due to an Egyptian arrest warrant based on a judiciary ruling sentencing him in absentia to five years’ jail on charges of “opposing the state and inciting terrorism”.
Campaigners called for his release, and to be returned to his country of residence, which is Turkey.
“Abdel-Rahman al-Qardawi is a writer and a poet, and expresses his personal feelings from an Arab perspective,” one activist told the Lebanese channel Al-Jadeed.
“We hope that the public prosecutor will look into this matter. Egypt has a history of torturing opposition activists, and we will not allow for him to be handed over.”
“We hope that he can return safely to his family. We even apologise to him (on behalf of Lebanon), he is a moral person”.
He also stressed that Turkey must also follow al-Qaradawi’s case, as he is a citizen.
On Saturday, Lebanese authorities said they “will ask the Egyptian authorities” to transfer al-Qaradawi’s file for examination
The judiciary will then make a recommendation on whether “the conditions are met for him to be extradited” and the matter will be referred to the Lebanese government, which must make the final decision, an official told AFP.
The activist, also a published poet, is the son of late scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, and has organised against deposed President Hosni Mubarak until his overthrow in 2011, during the Arab Spring which swept the region.
He later became a vocal opponent of current Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who in 2013 overthrew the elected Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Qaradawi had posted a video online taken at Damascus’s Umayyad mosque, celebrating Assad’s ouster, expressing hope for “victory” in other Arab Spring countries including Egypt and warning Syrians of “malicious regimes” in “the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt”.
The video then circulated widely in Egyptian media and online, and prompted outrage from local outlets.
The Muslim Brotherhood is outlawed in Egypt and has been proscribed as a “terrorist group” since 2013. Cairo has gone on to detain and imprison scores of the group’s members since  – often on bogus charges.
Egypt has also cracked down on activists from the 2011 Revolution, opponents of el-Sisi’s and anyone who makes comments deemed “insulting” to the country, the judiciary and authorities.
