The European Court of Human Rights found on Tuesday that Dutch immigration authorities did not properly assess the risk of the asylum seeker being returned to Bahrain when deporting Ali Mohamed Al Showaik.
The 32-year-old is currently serving a life sentence in Bahrain for supporting a terrorist organization. he was arrested immediately When I returned to Japan in 2019. According to Amnesty Internationalhe confessed under torture.
Judges at a Strasbourg-based court found the Dutch government violated human rights by denying Al-Showaik access to his lawyer and excluding last-minute evidence that he was wanted by Bahraini authorities. It was ruled that there was an infringement.
Shortly before he was scheduled to be deported, Al-Showaik provided the Dutch with new documents from the Bahrain Public Prosecutor’s Office written in Arabic, indicating that he would be arrested if he returned home. The Dutch refused to consider it, claiming that Al Showaik was simply trying to delay his departure.
“By frankly concluding that these documents do not carry evidentiary weight…without first assessing their potential relevance… [Dutch] The approach was too narrow,” the seven-judge panel wrote.
Al-Showaik fled to the Netherlands in 2017 because she feared authorities would arrest her brother because he is a political activist.
The court ordered the Netherlands to pay Al Showaik 50,000 euros in damages. Both parties have three months to appeal the decision.
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