OAG to decide on Bahrain detainee’s future next week

By THE NATION

 

File photo// AFP PHOTO

 

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL will have to decide by next week whether to extradite the detained Bahraini footballer or allow him to return to Australia.

 

Prosecutors received an official request from the Bahraini government to extradite footballer Hakeem Ali Mohamed Ali al-Araibi and the request is being reviewed to see if it falls within the 2008 Extradition Act, said Chatchom Akapin, former director-general at the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG)’s International Affairs Department yesterday.

 

If the OAG does decide to have al-Araibi extradited, then the case must be completed by next week or within 60 days after his detention, he said. Al-Araibi was detained on December 11. 

 

However, even after the OAG proceeds with the extradition, the prime minister still has the power to cancel the order and allow the footballer to return to Australia, where he has refugee status, he said. 

 

Al-Araibi, an acclaimed Bahraini footballer who currently plays for Pasco Vole Football Club in Melbourne, has a permanent-protection visa from the Australian government. 

 

The footballer was arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport as soon as he arrived on a vacation with his wife. 

 

He had been convicted in absentia of vandalising a police station in Bahrain and is being sought by his country to serve a 10-year prison sentence. In an official statement, Human Rights Watch has said the footballer is being unjustly charged as he was playing a televised match during the time of the alleged crime. 

 

Thailand and Bahrain do not have a bilateral extradition treaty, but provide each other assistance on grounds of reciprocity.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30363320

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-02-01

I have to wonder how this situation arose, as the article states Thailand and Bahrain have no bilateral treaty. This is an informal arrangement, as cynical as it may sound there may be some other business going on that may be beneficial to a few. 

 

I'm sure the story would be quite different if the eyes of the world were focused on it, as with the young Saudi woman. 

1 hour ago, webfact said:

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL will have to decide by next week whether to extradite the detained Bahraini footballer or allow him to return to Australia.

an international opportunity for thailand, the will instead give themselves a black eye

4 hours ago, Oziex1 said:

there may be some other business going on that may be beneficial to a few. 

Prayut's government is all about influence through financial power.

Maybe Prayut is running out of foreign investment sources for his jaw-dropping infrastructure projects that would forever memorialize his name. And Bahrain might offer a large investment in exchange for ?

It's a disgrace. The Australian Federal Police officer who caused this to happen should be hung, drawn and quartered. And the Thai authorities that have allowed it to continue should hang their heads in shame. How can you possibly consider sending a refugee back to the country from which he has been given refuge? And if you do hold him why can't you at least hold him in humane conditions?

3 hours ago, Howard said:

It's a disgrace. The Australian Federal Police officer who caused this to happen should be hung, drawn and quartered. And the Thai authorities that have allowed it to continue should hang their heads in shame. How can you possibly consider sending a refugee back to the country from which he has been given refuge? And if you do hold him why can't you at least hold him in humane conditions?

How did an Australian Federal Police officer cause to happen? Interpol issued a red flag and he was apprehended when he arrived in Bangkok while with his wife on honeymoon, but when was the red flag issued? That is the big question.. 

 

But I agree to hold a refugee with perm residence in Australia, in deplorable conditions at IDC, and threaten to return them to their original country of refuge is barbaric and the Thais should hold their heads in shame.. 

Yep, thailand being pricks again. Hes a refugee. Send prayut and piggy prawit to bahrain instead. World would be a better place. 

Its none of Thais business to hold this guy. Always some thai telling someone they cant do something for the applause of a colleague.