After two and a half months in a Thai detention of the footballer Al-Araibi from Bahrain arrived back in Australia. Supporters, friends and family welcomed the 25-Year-old at the airport of Melbourne.
of The Bahraini refugees football player Hakim Al-Araibi from Bahrain after two and a half months in prison in Thailand back in Australia. The 25-Year-old landed after his release, with a machine from Bangkok to the airport of Melbourne. There he was welcomed by family and friends.
“I want to thank Australia,” said Al-Araibi. “Australia is my country. I’m going to die in Australia and I love Australia.” Supporters were singing the football anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.
Jubilant Fans welcomed Al-Araibi at the airport of Melbourne.
arrest at the airport
The case of the actually fairly unknown professionals had made international headlines. Al-Araibi had fled, 2014, from Bahrain to Australia. He has been persecuted in his homeland and for several months in pretrial detention, tortured, he says. After Thailand, he came to spend his honeymoon there.
At the request of Bahrain, he was arrested at the end of November, however, on arrival at Bangkok airport. The authoritarian-ruled Kingdom in the Persian Gulf, accuses him to have during the Arab spring of 2011, riots also involved.
In absentia, he was sentenced to ten years in prison. Al-Araibi denies the allegations and called the investigation against him is politically motivated. To the alleged time of the crime he stood, according to its own information, at a football game that was broadcast live on television, on the square.
4. February 2019: Al-Araibi, according to a court appointment
International solidarity
The case also has international headlines. The world Federation FIFA and the International Olympic Committee have called for his release. Several former and current professional footballers such as Gary Lineker, or Italy’s national team-captain Giorgio Chiellini set for him.
On Monday announced the Thai public Prosecutor’s office, surprisingly, Bahrain was going to drop the extradition request. “If you don’t want him, we have no more reason to keep him here,” said a authorities representative.
