MANAMA (Middle East Eye) – A Bahraini political dissident has been deported from Serbia to his homeland, despite a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) specifically forbidding this.
Ahmed Jaafar Mohamed Ali has been extradited after Serbian officials responded to an Interpol red notice request from the kingdom.
Ali, who had previously been twice sentenced to life in prison in Bahrain in absentia, applied for asylum in Serbia in November 2021 arguing that he risked torture and potentially death in his homeland.
On Friday, the ECHR issued a ruling that Ali should not be extradited to Bahrain until 25 February, pending more information on his case, particularly around the “possible risks of torture and/or ill treatment that the applicant would face if extradited to Bahrain” and whether there were any mechanisms under which he would be “entitled to have his life sentence reviewed in Bahrain”.
Despite this issuance from the ECHR, the deportation was carried out on Monday morning. According to flight trackers, the Royal Jet plane left Serbia at 5:10 CET.
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, director at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), said the extradition was “scandalous”.
“It is disturbing that Serbia is blatantly disregarding its obligations under international law and deciding instead to destroy the life of a Bahraini dissident,” he told Middle East Eye.
“It appears that Serbia has decided to ignore the European Court of Human Rights’ decision to prioritize and strengthen its trade relationship with the Bahraini regime.”
The Bahraini regime and Serbia have sought to strengthen diplomatic and business ties over the past year.
Bahrain has been cracking down on all forms of dissent since 2011, when it started to face a popular backlash over its heavy-handed treatment of dissidents.