UN expert urged to investigate Lebanon over alleged torture of Egyptian-Turkish poet | Lebanon
The UN special rapporteur on torture is being asked to investigate Lebanon’s role in the treatment of Egyptian-Turkish poet and activist Abdulrahman al-Qaradawi, who has been detained in the United Arab Emirates for more than 10 months over a post he made on social media.
Legal counsel representing Qaradawi filed a complaint with the UN rapporteur on Thursday, asking for the situation to be examined.
Qaradawi was arrested by Lebanese authorities in December 2024 after returning from Syria, where he had gone to celebrate the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
While there, he posted a video on social media in which he criticized the Emirati, Egyptian and Saudi governments and said he hoped they would suffer the same fate as the Assad regime.
Qaradavi comes from a politically active family. His father, Yusuf Qaradawi, was a prominent Islamist scholar affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood who lived in exile until his death.
The Egyptian-Turkish activist was also an active supporter of pro-democracy protests in Egypt and was sentenced to prison in absentia in Egypt on charges that he criticized the judiciary.
However, it was the UAE, not Egypt, that persuaded Lebanon to arrest Qaradawi on charges of “fake news” and “disrupting public security” after his video in Syria.
He issued an arrest warrant for the dissident through the Arab Council of Interior Ministers, a little-known transnational organization that promotes security cooperation among Arab states.
Lebanese officials under the previous government led by former prime minister Najib Mikati complied with the UAE’s request. It extradited Qaradawi to the UAE on January 8, even though he was neither a UAE nor Lebanese citizen.
The brazenness of the arrest, which showed that a person could be smuggled into a country of which he is not a citizen because of a video he posted on social media, set a chilling precedent for freedom of expression in the Middle East.
Qaradawi was extradited after his lawyers and human rights groups, including Amnesty International, warned that he could be subjected to torture if he was sent to the UAE.
Lebanon’s government at the time dismissed his concerns and justified its decision by saying the UAE had promised to respect Qaradawi’s human rights.
His legal counsel said promises that his rights would be secured in the UAE were false.
Qaradawi has been held in solitary confinement with no access to sunlight at an undisclosed location for more than 10 months. His lawyers say these conditions amount to torture.
To date, he has neither had access to a lawyer nor been formally charged with a crime.
Rodney Dixon, Qaradawi’s international legal advisor, said: “Lebanon hastily approved the extradition on the basis that Abdulrahman’s human rights would be protected. This promise is in tatters.”
Dixon added that although it was the former Lebanese government that approved the extradition, the current government still has a legal obligation to right the wrong of its predecessor and seek Qaradawi’s return.
“Governments may change, but obligations do not. Lebanon was responsible for sending him there, now it must do everything possible to bring him back,” he said.
A spokesman for the Lebanese prime minister’s office said the extradition had not occurred under the current government. They made no further comment.
The UAE did not respond to a request for comment but had previously told the New York Times that Qaradawi’s detention complied with human rights standards.
A group of UN special rapporteurs expressed concern about Qaradawi’s detention conditions and said that Qaradawi’s rights were violated.
“Our greatest fear that Mr Al-Qaradawi will face grave human rights violations if extradited to the UAE appears justified.” UN experts said in March:.
His family also expressed concern because they had only been allowed to see him for two 10-minute visits since his detention.
His family told the Guardian: “It has been almost a year since Abdurrahman was taken from us. The thought of him being held alone in a cell without sunlight, fresh air or the charges against him is heartbreaking.”
“We will not stop until Abdurrahman is safe. Our only wish is to see him when he returns home, with his family, reading one of his poems to us again.”
Qaradawi’s popularity in the Arab world began long before his visit to Syria. He has built a large following online and spoken at political events.
He was particularly a supporter of Hamas and praised the October 7, 2023 attack in Israel that killed nearly 1,200 people. He dedicated a poem to the late leader of the group, Yahya Sinwar.
Rights groups say his detention sets a dangerous precedent in the region, where any government unhappy with a person’s opinion can have him imprisoned thousands of miles away.
Dixon said: “If governments can hunt down and imprison their critics across borders then no one is safe. That’s why the UN and the international community must act now to stamp out this behaviour, or risk setting a precedent that will endanger us all.”
