Mohammad Bin Ali Kuman, the secretary general of the Arab Interior Ministers’ Council (AIMC), is a Saudi academic and a former professor of law. [GETTY]
On 7 January, Lebanon’s caretaker cabinet approved the extradition of the son of late Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi to the United Arab Emirates, despite many calls in support of his release. He was flown on a private UAE jet immediately after and the UAE confirmed receiving him on Friday.
The Egyptian-Turkish writer and activist Abdul Rahman al-Qardawi was detained in Lebanon on 28 December after returning from Syria, according to his lawyer Mohammad Sablouh.
According to Sablouh, al-Qaradawi was handed over to Emirati authorities in the afternoon of 8 January.
Sources speaking on condition of anonymity have confirmed to The New Arab that the extradition request, which was used to justify the detention of al-Qaradawi, was circulated by the Arab Interior Ministers’ Council (AIMC), dubbed the ‘Arab Interpol’.
While maintaining a low profile, the AIMC has played an outsized role in the repression of Arab dissidents in the MENA region, becoming the Arab League’s main political extradition body targeting political dissidents such as al-Qaradawi as well as those wanted for alleged non-political criminal offences.
What is the AIMC?
Last July, The New Arab wrote about the Arab Interior Ministers’ Council, and the extent of its collaboration with EU police bodies, despite its controversial role and clear human rights implications.
Founded in 1982, the Arab Interior Ministers’ Council is a specialised body within the Arab League, also known as the League of Arab States (LAS), composed of the ministers of the interior of the 22 members, which include Lebanon.
The Council aims to “develop and strengthen cooperation and coordinate efforts between Arab countries in the field of internal security and combating crime”.
In practice, this means that the AIMC can circulate arrest and extradition requests from one of its member states among the rest of the countries in the League, even if the requests are used for political repression.
How is the AIMC responsible for al-Qaradawi’s extradition?
While the AIMC has historically maintained a low profile, it has recently started playing a bigger role in the arrest and detention of Arab dissidents, including those in exile, as soon as they travel anywhere in the MENA region.
In November 2022, Egyptian-American activist Sherif Osman was arrested in Dubai and detained for 46 days after the AIMC circulated an arrest warrant for him from Egypt.
The Freedom Initiative, a US-based NGO which advocates for people wrongfully detained in MENA, has established that the AIMC might have been involved in at least nine known cases of arrest or extradition of political dissidents between 2016 and 2023.
As a consequence, on 23 June 2023, three UN Special Rapporteurs wrote a letter to the Arab League asking it to review the legal basis for the AIMC’s extradition powers, since they “do not appear to comply with the obligations of [UN] Member States under international law, in particular with principles of non-refoulement, non-discrimination, due diligence and fair trial”.
The AIMC’s growing role in transnational repression has not deterred some of its EU counterparts from collaborating, as revealed by The New Arab last July.
This collaboration included, among other things, the establishment of a working arrangement, which would allow Arab law enforcement agencies to access what has been dubbed as “the EU Training Regime Teaching Neighbours How to Spy”.
