4 votes

Hakeem al-Araibi returning to Australia after Thai court rules extradition case be dropped

Posted by Algernon_Asimov
Tags: australia, thailand, refugees, hakeem al araibi

Hakeem al-Araibi returning to Australia after Thai court rules extradition case be dropped

This is a follow-up to this previous story: Refugee footballer Hakeem AlAraibi to remain in Thai prison after bail request rejected

2 comments

  1. [2]
    EightRoundsRapid
    Link
    This was all a bit strange, considering the warrant was issued against protocol. I wonder if the Thai govt wanted it to go through the system in order to set precedent for any future incidents.

    This was all a bit strange, considering the warrant was issued against protocol.

    I wonder if the Thai govt wanted it to go through the system in order to set precedent for any future incidents.

    2 votes
    1. Algernon_Asimov
      Link Parent
      It seems to be more on the Bahraini side than the Thai side. As recently as this afternoon, PM Scott Morrison was saying that this was not a "straight up and down issue", and was telling us to be...

      Speaking to the Guardian, Chatchom Akapin, the director general of the international affairs department of the attorney general’s office, said the primary reason was because “the Bahrain government no longer wants to pursue the extradition” of Al-Araibi. Chatchom said he did not know why Bahrain had dropped the extradition request. “Mr Hakeem is a free man now,” he added.

      The abrupt change in Bahrain’s position came a day after the Thai foreign minister visited the crown prince, Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, in Manama to discuss “bilateral relations between Bahrain and Thailand and reviewed areas of mutual interest”.

      It seems to be more on the Bahraini side than the Thai side.

      As recently as this afternoon, PM Scott Morrison was saying that this was not a "straight up and down issue", and was telling us to be patient. I suspect that Australia's government was quietly putting pressure on Thailand's government, in order to get them to put pressure on Bahrain's government - and, like when you push hard on a jammed door, and it suddenly flies open, the whole situation happened quite fast when it finally happened.

      3 votes