Shocking Decision by Moroccan Court to hand over Osama Al-Hasani
“Together for Justice” condemned the Moroccan court’s decision to hand over the academic Osama Al-Hasani to the Saudi authorities despite all appeals and human rights call to refrain from his extradition. Many warnings were sent to the government to refrain from this step which would put his life an imminent threat, in light of miserable human rights conditions in Saudi.
According to private sources, the Moroccan judiciary announced the shocking decision on Wednesday, March 10, to handover Al-Hasani, despite the absence of material evidence supporting the Saudi arrest warrant, thus violating the law.
Surprisingly, delegates from the Saudi embassy in Morocco attended the trial session, despite the illegality of their presence, thus raising doubts of the possibility of the impartiality of the Moroccan judiciary, especially as Al-Hasani’s defense team proved that the arrest was illegal, given that the arrest warrant was issued four days after Al-Hasani’s arrest.
Al-Hasani, the Australian academic of Saudi origins, was arrested in Morocco on February 8, 2021, by an arrest warrant submitted by Saudi Arabia. Since then, he has been detained, despite entering the country with his Australian passport and not having any Saudi identity on him.
The lawyers of Al-Hasani, who left Saudi several years ago to escape security harassment for holding an opposing opinion, presented documents to the Moroccan court that proved that Al-Hasani was not involved in the fabricated case brought by the Saudi authorities, along with other documents that prove the illegality of the arrest process, which were all ignored by the Moroccan judiciary that decided to obey the orders of the Saudi regime and handover Al-Hasani to them.
Al-Hasani was subjected to a series of legal and human rights violations since the first day of his arrest. He was pressured to sign the deportation request directly without raising the matter to the court, but he refused to sign, so the authorities began to practice other degrading practices against him, as they prevented him from visiting his wife, except once – and they verbally insulted him. The Moroccan authorities refused to include his Australian identity in his file to complicate matters for the representatives of the Australian embassy.
“Together for Justice” affirms that the continued security pursuit against Saudi dissidents abroad is arbitrary, and the international community must address it by taking serious measures to protect the opponents who suffer due to continued security cooperation with the Saudi regime, while not applying any sanctions against the Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman.
The organisation warns against the deportation of Osama Al-Hasani, who may face an unknown fate if the regime received him, as he could be assassinated or arrested and imprisoned after an unfair trial and fabricated charges.
Finally, “Together for Justice” joins its voice to all human rights organisations, activists and human rights defenders, and calls for the immediate release of Osama Al-Hasani and to stop his deportation to the Saudi regime, which will undoubtedly violate all its rights.
The organization invites you to blog about the academic Osama Al-Hasani on the hashtags #DontDeportOsamaAlHasani spread the case to the whole world so that the necessary measures can be taken to stop his deportation to Saudi Arabia.
Read More: Do not Allow the Handing Over Osama Al-Hasani to the Saudi Regime
