Hakeem Al-Araibi, who has refugee status in Australia, has been held in detention in Bangkok for 10 days

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Bahraini dissident refugee Hakeem Al-Araibi has been told he will appear in a Thai court on Friday morning for a hearing to decide on Bahrain’s extradition request.

Al-Araibi fled Bahrain in 2014 after he was arrested and tortured, and is now a permanent resident of Australia after being granted refugee status in 2017.

He has now spent more than 10 days in Thai detention after arriving for a holiday with his wife, only to be arrested at Bangkok’s international airport on the basis of a Bahraini-requested Interpol red notice.

Despite the red notice being lifted, Thai immigration authorities continue to hold Al-Araibi, claiming Bahraini authorities had requested his arrest before he even left Australia, raising concerns the 25-year-old was under surveillance.

He claims Thai immigration has denied him access to his lawyer before the hearing, and fears he will be deported.

“This might be my last message,” he wrote to journalists and supporters on Thursday night.

“I still don’t know whether I will be deported to Bahrain tomorrow. I appeal to the United Nations, individual states, Fifa, footballers, and all people, as my fate is now in danger and my future will soon be over. If I am deported to Bahrain, don’t forget me, and if once I’m there you hear me saying things, don’t believe me. I know what will happen to me and I know I will be tortured to confess things that I have never done. Please continue your fight to save me.”

Al-Araibi, a former national football player, fled Bahrain after he was arrested and tortured and accused of an act of vandalism that he said occurred while he was playing in a televised football match. He was sentenced in absentia to 10 years jail.

Toby Cadman, an international human rights lawyer and co-founder of the international justice chambers Guernica 37, said that if Thailand decided to hand Al-Araibi over to Bahrain it would be in breach of its international treaty obligations.

“We’d have to look at what the court in Thailand is legally able to consider [at the hearing],” Cadman told Guardian Australia.

“If it’s just a matter of deciding whether there’s a legal basis by way of a treaty then they could proceed, but they would have to acknowledge that the allegation [had] been made, and I don’t know how they can really get around the question of the risk of torture and an unfair trial in a case such as this.

“I don’t know what the relationship is between Thailand and Bahrain, but Bahrain has one of the worst human rights records in the world. That’s not an overstatement, that’s a matter of fact.

“It has total disregard for human rights protections.”

Cadman noted Bahrain had not sought Al-Araibi’s extradition from Australia, which he said would be “futile”.

“They have waited till he travelled to a country with a questionable legal system that could potentially be easily manipulated,” he said.

Al-Araibi’s Melbourne football club, Pascoe Vale FC, is among numerous organisations lobbying and crowdfunding in support of him.

Human rights groups have also lobbied the international football body, Fifa, to defend Al-Araibi. Fifa’s vice-president is Sheik Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, a member of the royal Bahraini family and the subject of public criticism by Al-Araibi in 2016 for not supporting him and other Bahraini players who were targeted as dissidents.

Fifa responded on Thursday, saying it had written to the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) “requesting that they take the matter up with their government, as a matter of urgency”.

“Fifa expects the situation of Mr. Al-Araibi to be solved in accordance with well-established international standards,” it said.

“In that respect, Fifa supports the calls for the Thai authorities to allow Mr. Al-Arabi to return to Australia, where he currently enjoys refugee status, at the earliest possible moment.”

Football Australia (@FFA) .@FFA Chairman Chris Nikou, CEO David Gallop and COO Mark Falvo attended the AFC Annual Awards in Muscat, Oman. It provided an opportunity for Chris Nikou to meet leaders of the game in Asia, including the AFC President, His Excellency Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa. pic.twitter.com/HPaX9gQb6L

Guardian Australia has contacted FFA for comment. Last Thursday it tweeted pictures of the FFA chair and chief executive in Oman, where they attended an award ceremony and met with Al-Khalifa.

Al-Araibi had been detained two days prior.