Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Like critical football games, Bahrain did its best to arrest football player Hakeem Al-Araibi, revealing the magnitude of the ill intentions it hides for the player currently held in a detention center in Bangkok, Thailand.

Bahrain has exhausted all its offensive cards to score a goal in the net of human rights organizations around the world, while awaiting a judicial decision from the Thai authorities on the 14th of this month.

The British Daily Mail newspaper revealed that Bahrain was aware of the player's travel from Australia to Bangkok, and cooperated with the Thai authorities for his arrest.

In an interview with BBC Thai, head of Thailand's immigration bureau Surachet Hakparn said that "Bahrain requested the arrest of an Australia-based refugee prior to his arrival in Thailand".

Surachet said the main reason Al-Araibi was arrested was because the Foreign Affairs Ministry requested the Immigration Department to do so prior to his arrival.

While Bahrain's interest in the arrest of Al-Araibi indicates its continuing intention to track down its opponents anywhere, it puts its knowledge in the advance movements of Al-Araibi. This raises a big question mark on the surveillance and espionage mechanisms that enabled it to know about Al-Araibi's travel to Thailand.

Al-Araibi's trip to Thailand was meant to be a belated honeymoon after being granted right of permanent residence in Melbourne. Al-Araibi resorted to Australia after being arrested and tortured in Bahraini prisons in 2012.

The Bahraini authorities rely in the international arrest notice issued against Al-Araiba on a 10-year jail verdict. Bahrain convicted the player over charges of attacking police. Meanwhile, Al-Araibi says he was playing a soccer match at the time of the alleged attack. Activists say that the official state television has recordings that prove this.

The request submitted by Bahrain before Al-Araibi's arrest was not enough, as it went on to issue new notices to the Thai authorities requesting the extradition of Al-Araibi "without hesitation". In the notices, Bahrain denied international statements confirming that Al-Araibi would be tortured immediately after his arrival in Bahrain.

A detainee extradited by the Netherlands last October was subjected to torture in the criminal investigation building, a building described by human rights organizations as "notorious", in which dozens were ill treated, some of whom died as a result.

Bahrain considers the arrest of Al-Araibi as a new fight between itself and human rights organizations, which have always criticized its poor human rights record.

Amnesty International said in a statement on its website that Bahraini refugee Hakeem Al-Araibi's forcible return to Bahrain would violate international law. The organization asked its followers to write to Thai authorities to immediately release Hakeem Al-Araibi and allow him to return to Australia if he so wishes and under no circumstances remove him to Bahrain or to any other country in which he would be at real risk of serious human rights violations.

Bahrain, a key ally of the United States and Britain, does not care about its reputation in the field of human rights. Bahrain has increased its pressure in recent days on Thailand to extradite the player to celebrate what it sees as a "new victory over these organizations".

Arabic Version