Hakeem al-Araibi: extradition proceedings against refugee begin amid Australian protests

The Guardian, UK: The extradition hearing for Hakeem al-Araibi has been forwarded to the Thai courts as advocates call for Fifa and the International Olympic Committee to threaten sanctions against Thailand and Bahrain, including suspending their memberships, over the continued detention of al-Araibi.
On Friday Nadthasiri Bergman, al-Araibi’s lawyer, said prosecutors had submitted an official request to the criminal court over Bahrain’s request to extradite al-Araibi.
The court ordered al-Araibi, who is in the Bangkok Remand Prison, to appear before it at 8.30am on Monday to answer whether or not he is willing to be extradited, Bergman said.
The extradition case proceeded after the Thai attorney general’s office considered the Bahraini request submitted earlier this week.
At rallies in several cities on Friday, human rights defenders said the Australian government needed to do more to help the Bahraini refugee and Australian resident, because soft diplomacy had not worked.
On Friday joint rallies were held in Melbourne and Sydney, with further events planned for London, Berlin and Toronto, calling for urgent action to secure al-Araibi’s release.
Olympic gold medallists including the Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe and the wheelchair racer Kurt Fearnley have added their voices to the campaign.
The 25-year-old has been in detention in Bangkok for 66 days after he was arrested on an Interpol red notice, issued to Bahrain against refugee protection policies.
“We want to see both Thailand and Bahrain threatened with suspension from not just football but the IOC,” the former Australian football captain Craig Foster said at the Sydney rally.
“These are the two biggest sporting organisations on the planet. Membership of those organisations, and of the sports that we love and have a duty to protect, comes with obligations.
“It’s simply not acceptable to incarcerate and torture athletes and then expect to remain a member of Fifa and the IOC. It cannot possibly be acceptable to try to run a case to refoule a refugee on political motivations and expect to remain a member of Fifa and the IOC.”
Nikki Dryden, who twice represented Canada as a swimmer at the Olympics, and is now a human rights and immigration lawyer, said the IOC had to do “much more than they have so far”.
“The IOC must be faster in securing the release of Hakeem, and must take on the higher value of human rights over money.”
Asked if sponsors, audiences and teams should consider boycotts if Fifa and the IOC did not impose sanctions, Foster said “definitely”.
“If Hakeem is not released in the very immediate term, or we see a very significant development from Fifa’s intervention, then we need to look at the next stage, and that is around the sponsors,” he said.
Foster, who met Fifa executives in Switzerland this week, said he was given an undertaking Fifa would directly lobby Bahrain, which was a “significant step forward”.
He said Fifa did not support sanctions because they questioned their effectiveness and legality.