Friends and relatives of Egyptian-Turkish activist Abdel Rahman Yusuf have expressed concern that he will be extradited to Egypt or the UAE following his arrest in Lebanon.
Yusuf, who is the son of the late Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, was arrested at the Masnaa border crossing after returning from Syria, where he joined friends celebrating the success of the overthrow of the Assad dynasty.
Lebanese authorities are detaining him based on an arrest warrant issued by the Arab Interior Ministers Council following his conviction in absentia by the Egyptian judiciary in 2017.
Yusuf is a vocal critic of the Egyptian government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who came to power after the overthrow of the late President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
The poet was accused by the Egyptians of “inciting to violence and disseminating false information”.
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His friends and family said the ruling was “emblematic of the Egyptian regime’s systematic fabrication of charges against political opponents and the judiciary’s use as a tool of persecution”.
‘Zionist regimes’
Lebanese advocate general of the Court of Cassation, Myrna Kallas, reportedly ordered Yusuf’s detention following an extradition request made by the UAE on Monday.
Abu Dhabi is going after the activist because of his hostile position towards the country.
Yusuf filmed himself in Damascus calling Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE “Zionist Arab regimes” presenting “evil challenges” to the Syrian people.
The Egyptian government subsequently made an extradition request as well.
“Our greatest fear is the pointless pressure from Egypt and the UAE,” Mourad Aly, spokesperson for Yusuf’s friends and family, told Middle East Eye. “He is not even an Emirati citizen.”
Egyptian poet Abdel Rahman Yusuf held in Lebanon after celebrating Assad fall in Syria
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A joint statement by his friends and family said that “the extradition of Abdel Rahman to either Egypt or the UAE places him in imminent danger of torture, ill-treatment, and an unfair trialâpractices well-documented by human rights organisations as systemic in both countries”.
Mohammad Sablouh, Yusuf’s lawyer, said in a video that while Lebanon and Egypt have an extradition agreement, the Lebanese judiciary has not yet examined the crimes Egypt accused him of.
Additionally, Sablouh told Lebanese newspaper lâOrient le Jour (OLJ) that the agreement does not apply to crimes with political character, or when the accused may face torture in the country requesting extradition.
OLJ added that “the crimes attributed to Qaradawi date back to 2017 and are now time-barred under the five-year statute of limitations”.
In his video, Sablouh said that Lebanon does not have an extradition agreement with the UAE, but OLJ learned through a judicial source that Abu Dhabi invoked the principle of reciprocity to justify their request for extradition.
“Most importantly, [Yusuf] did not commit any crimes punishable in Lebanon,” Sablouh added.
Yusuf’s father, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, was long associated with the Muslim Brotherhood until he died in 2022 in Qatar.
The Brotherhood, to which Morsi also belonged, is proscribed in both the UAE and Egypt.
