An Interpol red notice for Australian resident and Bahraini refugee Hakeem Al-Araibi has been lifted but Thai authorities are continuing to hold him in detention until they decide which country to allow to take him.
On Monday evening, a Thai court issued an order for Al-Araibi to be held in remand for up to 12 days, subject to renewal, while authorities determine whether he will be deported to Australia – where he lives as a permanent resident on a refugee visa – or to Bahrain, the country he fled after being allegedly tortured and beaten.
Bail was opposed.
Al-Araibi fled Bahrain and sought asylum in Australian in 2014. A professional football player, he and others were arrested and allegedly beaten and tortured over their or their families’ involvement in political protests.
Al-Araibi was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison over the alleged vandalism of a building, which he denies and claims occurred while he was playing in a televised football match.
Despite Thai authorities being given Interpol documentation that the international arrest warrant had been lifted, they did not release him, Guardian Australia was told.
Major concerns have been raised about the red notice against Al-Araibi, because of his status as a refugee. Interpol’s official policy has for more than three years dictated that no red notice would be allowed against refugees from the countries they fled.
Interpol directed earlier questions about the notice’s legitimacy to Bahrain and did not respond to recent requests to comment.
The Thai immigration bureau commissioner, Surachate Hakparn, told the Bangkok Post he had met with Australia’s acting ambassador to Thailand, Paul Stephens, and told him the detention conformed strictly with domestic and international law.
Foreign consular staff can only demand access to see citizens of their own country but Guardian Australia was told an embassy staff member visited Al-Araibi on Monday.
Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne said last week that Al-Araibi was not an Australian citizen and was travelling on UN papers but Australia had “raised that matter” with Thailand.
“Our post in Thailand is aware of it and is following up on that,” she said.
Payne’s office did not respond to further inquiries.
There were fears on Monday afternoon he would be deported that evening after authorities took him from the Suan Phlu immigration detention centre, without telling him or his wife where he was going or why.
Al-Araibi later got word to his wife that he was in a prison near the airport, and authorities had taken his travel documents from him.
“I don’t want to stay here,” Al-Araibi told Guardian Australia shortly before he was taken. “I’m a refugee in Australia. I’m scared of the Bahraini government … They will kill me. I don’t know what’s going to happen there. My life will end if I go to Bahrain.”
The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird) said Al-Araibi was taken without prior notification or access to legal counsel. Al-Araibi’s wife said she was not told where he was going, only that he “would not return”.
“This is not the first time that the Thai authorities are deliberating the extradition of a Bahraini national facing great risk of torture,” Bird director Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei said.
In 2016 Al-Araibi spoke to media from his home city of Melbourne, publicly criticising the Bahraini regime, detailing his abuses and criticising the president of the Asian Football Confederation, Sheikh Salman Alkhalifa, who was campaigning for the FIFA presidency.
On Tuesday, Bird wrote to the current Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, urging him to pressure Thai authorities to release Al-Araibi.
“If deported to Bahrain, Hakeem will have to spend 10 years in prison on arbitrary charges and could face torture at the hands of a government who is well-known for crushing dissidents,” the letter from Alwadaei said.
“We, therefore, request that you use your leverage to urge the Thai authorities to facilitate the return of Hakeem Al-Araibi to Australia and pressure the Bahraini government to cease its attempts to secure Hakeem’s unlawful return to Bahrain.”