22 Feb Serbia illegally extradites Bahraini dissident despite ECtHR ruling
Human Rights Watch published a statement on the deportation of a political dissident to Bahrain in January 24, 2022, by Serbian authorities, despite an order by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) explicitly banning his extradition until more information is available. The statement said Bahraini authorities had previously tortured and mistreated dissident , Ahmed Jaffer Muhammad. Muhammad fled the country in 2013. Bahraini courts subsequently sentenced him to life in prison in absentia at least twice following apparently unfair trials. In 2015, Bahraini authorities stripped him of his citizenship, leaving him stateless.
Serbian authorities arrested Muhammad on November 3, 2021, on the basis of an Interpol Red Notice issued at Bahrain’s request in 2015. It is unclear when Muhammad had arrived in Serbia but his lawyer, Marko Štambuk, a lawyer who collaborates with the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights on asylum cases, told Human Rights Watch that Muhammad was intending to seek asylum somewhere in Europe.
On December 7 2021, however, the High Court accepted the extradition decision. The appeals court then rejected Muhammad’s appeal on that decision on January 18. The decision was then sent to Serbia’s Minister of Justice, Maja Popovic, who approved the decision, clearing the way for Serbia to forcibly return him to Bahrain within days. His lawyer said that he informed Serbia’s competent asylum authorities, the asylum office at the Ministry of Interior, and the Border Police Directorate, on January 20 of Muhammed’s intention to seek asylum and that they responded the next day, January 21, stating that he would be allowed to do so.
On that same day, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued an interim measure calling on Serbia to halt Muhammed’s extradition pending more information, including “the possible risks of torture and/or ill-treatment that the applicant would face if extradited to Bahrain.” The court also asked whether he would be entitled “to have his life sentence reviewed in Bahrain” and instructed Serbia to seek the information from Bahrain by February 11 and not extradite Muhammad before February 25, 2022.
Human Rights Watch had documented that Bahraini authorities tortured Muhammad while interrogating him following his arrest alongside other protesters in 2007 after participating in a series of demonstrations in response to alleged abuses by security forces. He was subsequently sentenced to prison for offenses that included illegal assembly and illegal possession of weapons. He was freed along with other political prisoners in 2009 under a royal pardon.
Serbia’s deportation of Muhammad violates the international law principle of nonrefoulement, which obliges states not to return anyone to places where they would face a real risk of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. It also violates Serbia’s obligations under the UN Convention Against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
References from the website of the Human Rights Watch