A Kuwaiti princess seeking sanatorium in Bosnia and Herzegovina proclaims the Kuwaiti government is using an Interpol red notice to threaten and harass her, as well as to force the extradition of her partner, a well-known dissenting blogger, back to Kuwait.
According to Sheikha Moneera Fahad al-Sabah and Masaed al-Mesaileem, they faced torture and threats to their lives if they went back to Kuwait due to their political activism.
Kuwait has obtained an Interpol red notice for Mesaileem, which serves as an international arrest warrant and, according to the couple’s lawyer, was most likely issued under false pretences.
According to Alexis Thiry, legal adviser of Mena Rights Group, a Switzerland-based NGO that works to provide legal representation to Mesaileem, States with a poor record on human rights are increasingly requesting extradition on political grounds.
“From a human rights standpoint, this is a very concerning development because such practise undermines the regulation of non-refoulement, which is a rule of global customary law.”
The fundamental principle underlying international refugee law is non-refoulement, which states that a person in need of protection cannot be forcibly returned to a place where they will face harm.
The United Nations human rights council stated that they are deeply concerned by the risk of Mesaileem’s extradition back to Kuwait.
Both Sabah and Mesaileem have publicly criticized the Kuwaiti state on social media, with Sabah accusing Kuwait’s ruling family of corruption.
Kuwait’s ruler, Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, is Sabah’s great uncle, and he took power in September 2020. She is the granddaughter of the previous Kuwaiti emir, Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah.
According to sources, she had received multiple threats regarding her safety and her family’s safety and other powerful figures in Kuwait.
“They’re going to murder me.” “They’ve filed some [legal] cases against me in Kuwait for assaulting the royal family’s being,” said Sabah, 35, who claims her father imprisoned her for nearly a year.
“When I first began speaking out about corruption, they accused me of being mentally ill and said I needed to be institutionalized.” So I’m afraid they’ll lock me up, confiscate my phones, and prevent me from speaking because I have many secrets.”
The couple, who shifted to Bosnia in 2020, surrendered their passports and were issued yellow asylum seeker cards by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The couple claims that men posing as Interpol officers raided their home in April 2020, claiming to be acting on a red notice issued two years prior on weapons possession charges.