Lawyers for a Bahraini political dissident have filed a lawsuit against police in France, claiming he was illegally extradited, imprisoned and tortured after being arrested in Serbia on an Interpol red notice. filed a civil suit in court.
Ahmed Jaafar Mohamed Ali traveled to Serbia in November 2021 to seek asylum, but was arrested by local authorities under a red notice, which the lawsuit alleges violates the organization’s governing principles. .
In January 2022, the European Court of Human Rights issued an interim measure asking Serbian authorities to refrain from handing over Ali until more information is available, especially given the risk of torture and ill-treatment if Ali is returned. announced.
Three days later, campaigners say a private plane chartered by United Arab Emirates-based Royal Jet Airways took Ali to Bahrain.
Ali, who served two life sentences in Jau prison, said he has been beaten, denied medical treatment and held in solitary confinement for long periods since his return.
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“I was tortured and will spend the rest of my life behind bars in one of the most notorious prisons on earth,” Ali said in a message from prison.
“I hold Interpol responsible for the unimaginable suffering I have suffered since I was extradited to Bahrain.”
Middle East Eye has contacted Interpol, Serbian and Bahraini authorities for comment.
Ali’s case is just the latest legal challenge to Lyon-based Interpol, but legal experts say the authoritarian state’s efforts to suppress dissent abroad For this reason, the number of cases in which this type of litigation is used has been increasing in recent years.
In July, lawyers for Egyptian-American activist Sherif Othman sued Interpol and others, claiming their client had been kidnapped and illegally imprisoned in the UAE after Interpol issued a red notice of arrest. A federal lawsuit was filed in the United States against several parties.
Saeed Ahmed Alwadai, advocacy director at the UK-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), said Interpol should have known what would happen if Ali was extradited to Bahrain. .
“Their red notice system is fundamentally flawed if it cannot protect political dissidents like Ahmed Jaafar from extradition,” Al-Waday said.
A red notice is a request submitted by an Interpol member state asking law enforcement agencies in other member states to locate and provisionally arrest a wanted person. Member states decide whether to act on the Red Notice in accordance with their national laws.
Ali’s lawsuit alleges that Interpol issued the red notice in violation of a constitutional provision that strictly prohibits “intervention or activities of a political, military, religious, or racial nature.” ing.
Ali was arrested in Bahrain in 2007 while taking part in a demonstration defending the rights of the country’s Shiite minority, and has said he was tortured while imprisoned.
He was released in 2009 and took part in protests during the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings. Activists said he was seriously injured during the protests and fled the country fearing for his safety as a political opponent.
Ali was convicted in absentia of murdering a police officer and terrorism-related charges, which he claims were trumped up. Human rights groups say such charges are often made against people who protested against the government in 2011.
Three political prisoners convicted in the same trial were executed in January 2017. The United Nations Committee against Torture said it was particularly concerned that their sentences were “reportedly based on confessions extracted under torture.”