(New York)—PEN America strongly condemns the extradition of Egyptian-Turkish poet and political activist Abdul Rahman Yusuf Al-Qaradawi by Lebanese authorities to the United Arab Emirates, (UAE), where faces the risk of arbitrary detention and other serious human rights violations. We urgently call for his immediate release.
“Lebanon’s decision to grant the extradition request of Abdul Rahman Yusuf Al-Qaradawi to the UAE—a country with a documented history of actively suppressing all forms of dissent and of jailing writers and activists—represents not only a blatant disregard for international processes regarding extradition, but a terrible betrayal of basic human rights,” said Karin Karlekar, PEN America’s director of Writers at Risk.
“The UAE’s request appears to be based on nothing more than Al-Qaradawi’s expression of his views in a video posted on social media. The decision to extradite him on such flimsy grounds and via an opaque and arbitrary process highlights an alarming trend of transnational repression, where governments increasingly target exiled writers and activists, often with the complicity of third-party states.”
While in Damascus last month, Al-Qaradawi posted a video celebrating the removal of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and expressing hope that the Syrian transition would not be hindered by states including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Upon his return to Lebanon on December 28, he was arrested and reportedly interrogated about the video. Authorities also questioned him about a 2017 Egyptian court verdict, issued in absentia, which sentenced him to five years in prison on a variety of charges, including spreading “false news.” Both Egypt and the UAE filed lawsuits requesting Al-Qaradawi’s extradition, and on January 8, Al-Qaradawi was flown to the UAE on a private jet, where he remains in custody.
Abdul Rahman Al-Qaradawi rose to prominence during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, where his poetry—often focused on resisting authoritarian regimes and championing human rights—established him as a key voice of the Arab Spring. Following the revolution, he was banned from broadcasting and publishing in Egypt and ultimately exiled to Turkey, where he later obtained citizenship. The son of renowned Egyptian Islamic scholar Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, his work as a writer and poet has always been deeply tied to his activism and he has consistently used his craft to advocate for social change and political reform.