Serbian authorities have extradited a Bahraini dissident in cooperation with Interpol despite an injunction by the European court of human rights, in the first test for the international policing organisation under the presidency of a top Emirati security official.
Authorities in Belgrade approved the extradition of Ahmed Jaafar Mohamed Ali to Bahrain earlier this week. Days earlier the ECHR had issued an injunction saying the extradition should be postponed until after 25 February to allow Serbian authorities time to provide more information to the court, which was responding to a request by the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights to consider Ali’s case.
The court also asked for further evidence from the Serbian authorities about the case and warned that failure to comply meant that Serbia risked breaching the European convention on human rights.
Ali’s lawyers claimed that a judge in Belgrade informed the Serbian authorities and Interpol about the ruling last Sunday. He was extradited to Bahrain in the early hours of Monday morning on a charter flight by Royal Jet, a private Emirati airline headed by a member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi.
The Bahraini interior ministry hailed Ali’s deportation as a “joint operation between member countries of the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol)” and said he was “arrested after coordination and communication with a friendly country”.
Ali’s extradition represents the first case of its kind since Maj Gen Ahmed Naser al-Raisi, a leading Emirati security official, was elected to the presidency of Interpol. Raisi, who oversaw the Emirati detention system, was accused by former detainees of complicity in torture amid growing concern that his election could also embolden authoritarian regimes’ abuse of Interpol’s structures to arrest dissidents overseas.
Earlier this month a complaint containing new allegations of torture was filed against Raisi in France after he visited Interpol’s headquarters in Lyon for the first time as president. None of the complaints have resulted in any formal proceedings against the general.
Interpol is a supranational police force providing investigational support to its member states, including sharing information on suspects via its red notice system. Its critics have accused the organisation of allowing anti-democratic regimes to abuse the red notice system by flagging political dissidents for arrest.
“The fact that Interpol proceeded with this extradition to Bahrain despite knowing they were violating a direct decision from the European court of human rights prohibiting Ahmed’s return sends a devastating message that, under al-Raisi’s leadership, red lines will be crossed,” said Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy.
“This scandal has unfolded on his watch, and Interpol will now be complicit in any abuse faced by Ali.”
Ali was arrested in Belgrade in November on the basis of a red notice issued in 2015 at the request of Bahrain. He previously sought asylum in Serbia fearing that he would be tortured on return, as he personally described in a 2010 report by Human Rights Watch on the use of torture in the kingdom.
The 48-year-old was sentenced to life in prison in absentia in 2013 for alleged terrorist activities including bomb-making. Rights groups have accused the Bahraini authorities of using similar charges against anti-government protesters in order to suppress dissent following mass protests that gripped Bahrain in 2011.
Ali was also named in 2015 as one of 10 defendants in a separate case over the killing of an Emirati police officer, where three of his co-defendants were executed by firing squad two years later. The UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, Agnés Callamard, and special rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer, accused the Bahraini authorities of relying on false confessions and evidence obtained under torture in the case, as well as denying the accused access to legal assistance.
Callamard later condemned the executions as “extrajudicial killings”, after what she called an “unfair trial and flimsy evidence”.
A spokesperson for the Bahraini government said Ali was not at risk of mistreatment. “As with all inmates in Bahrain, he will have his legal rights guaranteed and will be able to pursue proceedings in accordance with due legal process,” they said.
When contacted about Ali’s case, an Interpol spokesperson said that decisions about extradition and arrests are the responsibility of domestic authorities. “Extradition is a bilateral matter between member countries and Interpol is not involved in this process,” they said. “The Interpol general secretariat was not informed of either the individual’s arrest or the extradition ruling by Serbian authorities. Please note also, no individual member of the executive committee, including the president, has any involvement or influence in the decision-making process to publish or cancel a red notice.”
The Serbian Ministry of Justice, which approved the extradition, and Royal Jet have been approached for comment.
