UN Human Rights Office expresses concerns over Al-Rumaithi’s extradition

The United Nations Human Rights Office has expressed serious concerns over the Emirati activist Khalaf Alrumaithi’s extradition from Jordan to UAE.

Khalaf Alrumaithi’s extradition from Jordan to UAE raises serious due process concerns, it said in a tweet.

We are worried about potential ill-treatment. We urge UAE authorities to ensure full respect for his rights and promptly release all jailed for exercising freedoms of expression and association, it further added.

Al-Romaithi, was detained at Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport. He was released on bail later that day but detained again a day later at a coffee shop by security men in civilian clothes. The security forces claimed that he was arrested on suspicion of trying to flee the kingdom after he changed his residence and phone number.

In July 2013, the UAE’s Federal Supreme Court sentenced al-Romaithi in absentia to 15 years in prison following the grossly unfair and infamous “UAE94” mass trial

His lawyer, Assem Al-Omari, stated that the Jordanian authorities had not officially informed him of al-Romaithi’s extradition to Abu Dhabi.

Sources familiar with the matter affirmed that the UAE government has continued to pursue al-Romaithi over the past ten years, freezing his money and preventing him from meeting with his children, who are subjected to a travel ban.UN Human Rights Office expresses concerns over Al-Rumaithi’s extradition