A complaint for “torture” and “arbitrary detention” was filed in Austria against the Emirati president of Interpol, Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi, expected in Vienna for the general assembly of the international police organization, announced the lawyer for two Britons.
“We hope that the Austrian authorities will investigate these serious allegations,” said Rodney Dixon, quoted in a press release.
The procedure is based on “universal jurisdiction”, a principle which allows the authorities to initiate prosecutions if the suspect travels to the country.
A spokesperson for the Vienna public prosecutor’s office confirmed receipt of the complaint to AFP and said it was “studying it” particularly with regard to the “competence of Austria”.
Matthew Hedges, a researcher, and Ali Issa Ahmad, a security guard, were both arrested in the United Arab Emirates in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
The first, a teacher at the University of Exeter (southwest of England), told AFP last year that he had been arrested at the end of a study trip.
He described a “terrifying” seven months of detention, mostly in solitary confinement, with “threats of violence” to make him confess to allegedly belonging to the British intelligence services.
After a forced confession, according to him, he was sentenced to life in prison for espionage in November 2018, then pardoned less than a week later, under international pressure.
The second, a football fan, claims to have been arrested for wearing a jersey in support of Qatar, then at loggerheads with the United Arab Emirates, during the Asian Nations Cup. He said he was punched and stabbed during his roughly three weeks in detention.
Both believe that as inspector general of the Ministry of the Interior, Mr. Raisi bears responsibility for their fate.
Also concerned, France, where Interpol headquarters is located, opened an investigation against him in March 2022 for “complicity in torture”.
The plaintiffs also initiated criminal proceedings in Norway, Sweden and Türkiye.
When contacted, the United Arab Emirates embassy in Vienna did not immediately respond.
Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi was elected in November 2021 as head of Interpol, an essentially ceremonial function, despite protests from human rights organizations.
The complaint filed Monday also includes the case of Ahmed Jaafar Mohamed Ali, a “dissident” from Bahrain detained since January 2022. Convicted of “offenses linked to terrorism”, he was arrested in Serbia where he had filed a request for asylum, under an Interpol red notice, before being extradited to the Gulf kingdom.
“Interpol is not involved in the extradition procedure,” reacted Secretary General Jürgen Stock during a press conference on the eve of the opening of the General Assembly.
“Our role is to publish alerts on behalf of our member states,” he explained, while saying that upon his arrival he had set up “a team to verify the compliance” of these controversial notices.