Australia Soccer Union Seeks Help for Detained Bahraini Refugee Footballer

Local Editor

The head of the Australian soccer players union wants the sport’s regional governing body to help secure the release of a Bahraini refugee footballer arrested in Thailand in November over a prison sentence in his homeland.

Hakeem al-Araibi, who played in Australia but had flown out for his honeymoon, was arrested in November in Bangkok on an Interpol notice issued at Bahrain’s request.

The former member of Bahrain’s national soccer team was convicted of allegedly vandalizing a police station and sentenced to 10 years in prison in absentia.

He has denied wrongdoing.

John Didulica, chief executive of Professional Footballers Australia (PFA), said the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), whose head is a member of Bahrain’s ruling family, should intervene for his freedom.

Didulca said Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, as AFC president, was obliged to safeguard footballers’ rights, but he had seen no evidence of action.

“That’s a huge failure on their behalf and must be remedied,” he told Reuters at a hotel in Dubai on Sunday while attending the Asian Cup.

Failure to work towards al-Araibi’s return to Australia, where he was granted asylum in 2017 after fleeing Bahrain three years earlier, could make Sheikh Salman’s candidacy for re-election “untenable”, he added.

When asked by Reuters to respond to Didulica’s comments, an AFC spokesman said: “The AFC is working with many stakeholders including FIFA, and as this work is ongoing we will make no further comment”.

FIFA has demanded al-Araibi be allowed to return to Australia.

Activists have called on authorities to “show humanity” to al-Araibi in the same way they did to an 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled from her family to Thailand.

Human Rights Watch said al-Araibi was tortured by Bahraini authorities because of his brother’s political activities during the uprising in 2011.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team