Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): The wife of the Bahraini footballer and refugee Hakeem Al-Araibi has written to leaders in Canada and New Zealand about his arrest that the authorities'' intention to extradite him to Bahrain, the British The Guardian reported.

The newspaper stated that Al-Araibi's wife said in the letter that "time is running out", pleading Canada and New Zealand PMs to help him return to Australia.

His wife, who does not want to be named, spent the first 10 days of his detention sharing a cell with him but has since had to return to Australia.

In a letter to the Canadian Prime minister, Justin Trudeau, Al-Araibi's wife pleaded with him to put pressure on the Thai authorities to release him.

"Time is running out, and I am pleading desperately to you as a humanitarian, and someone who would not hesitate to stand with justice, please please help my husband," she wrote, citing Canada's swift offer of resettlement to the Saudi refugee Rahaf Al-Qunun.

"His refugee status relates to his persecution in Bahrain. This in itself should be sufficient to showcase the inhumanity of extraditing him back to Bahrain, let alone the fact that it is illegal."

In a separate letter to the New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, Al-Araibi's wife described how their honeymoon turned into a nightmare.

"My husband is going through the hardest days of his life all these 60 days," she wrote. In her letters to both the Canadian and New Zealand leaders, she said the "illegal refoulement" sought by Bahrain would put Al-Araibi's life "in certain danger of persecution, imprisonment and possible death".

"I am terrified that the final decision to deport him will take place within the next few days," she said.

Arabic Version