Abdulrahman Al-Qaradawi’s lawyer has urged Lebanon’s judiciary not hand over his client to the UAE, amid concerns over his fate
Abdul Rahman Al-Qaradawi could face prolonged imprisonment in the UAE over his political views [Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty]
Lebanon has speeded up procedures to hand over Egyptian opposition activist Abdulrahman al-Qaradawi to the United Arab Emirates in the coming days, raising fears over his fate, his lawyer has said.
Lebanese attorney Mohammad Sablouh told the Arabi21 news site that his client is expected to be handed over to the UAE before 9 January, when a parliamentary session in Beirut is expected to take place to elect a new president.
Sablouh had previously spoken of “suspicious” activity surrounding Al-Qaradawi’s case at Lebanon’s Court of Cassation and warned that extraditing him to the UAE would be unlawful as his country of origin, Egypt, had already requested from Lebanon to hand him over.
The lawyer added that there was no extradition treaty between Beirut and Abu Dhabi.
Sablouh said that Lebanon’s acting Public Prosecutor Jamal Hajjar came to the court for the first time on Friday, in a sign that Lebanese authorities were speeding up the case.
The UAE request will be referred to the Lebanon’s caretaker Cabinet to make a final decision during a session scheduled for Tuesday, 7 January, he added.
The lawyer said he submitted a request to Hajjar to stop Al-Qaradawi’s deportation, stressing that the UAE request was illegal as it was not based on an arrest warrant or judicial ruling issued in Lebanon.
Al-Qaradawi also does not hold Emirati citizenship, Sablouh added, and therefore the UAE has no right to demand his extradition.
In his request to Hajjar, Sablouh stressed that “Al-Qaradawi did not commit any crime punishable in Lebanon, as freedom of creativity and expression is constitutionally guaranteed, and that his deportation contravenes the Convention against Torture” adopted by the UN in December 1984.
The Lebanese embassy in the UAE received an official extradition request for Al-Qaradawi on December 31. The request was sent to the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and delivered earlier this week.
Al-Qaradawi resides in Turkey and holds Turkish nationality. Campaigners have called on Ankara to intervene to repatriate him.
Al-Qaradawi was arrested last week at the Masnaa border crossing in Lebanon after returning from Syria, where he partook in celebratory events to mark the toppling of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
He was reportedly detained due to an Egyptian arrest warrant based on a judiciary ruling in Egypt sentencing him in absentia to five years in prison on charges of “opposing the state and inciting terrorism.”
Al-Qaradawi is a vocal opponent of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who in 2013 overthrew Egypt’s first democratically elected leader, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The activist and published poet is the son of late scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
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 thousands of the group’s members, subjecting them to torture, abuse, and medical neglect in prison.
