The extradition raises serious human rights concerns and threats to his safety amid allegations of political persecution.
This statement was originally published on gc4hr.org on 3 January 2025.
Iraqi authorities handed over Kuwaiti blogger Salman Al-Khalidi, who was sentenced in absentia to long years in prison, to Kuwaiti authorities at the Kuwaiti Al-Abdali border crossing with Iraq. The governor of Basra in Iraq handed him over to the Kuwaiti Minister of Interior in person.
On 1 January 2025, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior posted on its X account, stating, “In direct cooperation with the sisterly Republic of Iraq, the Criminal Security Sector succeeded in arresting the accused fugitive outside the State of Kuwait (Salman Al-Khalidi), against whom 11 enforceable prison sentences were issued.” Local reports confirmed that Iraqi security forces arrested Al-Khalidi at Baghdad International Airport as he was about to travel to London, where he resides.
The tweet also included a photo of Khalidi with his hands tied behind his back while he was made to sit on the ground. The photo confirms that the authorities were deliberately insulting him due to his anti-government views, as he appeared in a miserable state, with his eyes closed and a stunned expression on his face.
Al-Khalidi, 25 years old, is a Kuwaiti youth who was studying in Qatar when, on 6 June 2022, he was sentenced in absentia in Kuwait to five years’ imprisonment with hard labour after being convicted of committing a “hostile act” against Saudi Arabia. That ruling is related to a series of tweets he published on 25 March 2022 about the role of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018.
After this ruling was issued in absentia, he was forced to travel to the United Kingdom, where he arrived on 21 May 2022, and submitted his application to obtain political asylum, which was granted to him on 29 December 2023.
On 30 January 2024, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) documented the latest in absentia prison sentence issued against him. On 23 January 2024, the State Security Criminal Court sentenced Al-Khalidi to three years in prison with hard labour. The ruling was issued after he was convicted of the following charges mentioned in the court’s verdict, a copy of which was provided to GCHR: “insulting publicly and in a public place by writing about the head of the state, and intentional misuse of cell phone in writing and publishing.”
On 7 April 2024, an Emiri decree was issued bearing the signature of the Emir of the country, Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, which stated that citizenship had been withdrawn from three citizens, including Al-Khalidi, and from all those who acquired it through dependency.
The ongoing targeting of Al-Khalidi and these allegations are related to his use of his account on X (formerly Twitter) to express his personal opinions on public issues of concern to citizens in Kuwait, and his defense of the civil and humanitarian rights of the Bedoon community, as well as of prisoners of conscience, in addition to his work as a founding member of the Kuwaiti Refugee Association. The headquarters of the Association, which was established in August 2022, are in the United Kingdom, where it holds activities.
For more information about his case and the rest of the rulings against him, see here.
GCHR strongly condemns the Iraqi authorities’ extradition of blogger Salman Al-Khalidi to Kuwait, despite knowing that he is an opponent of the government there, and that he has obtained political asylum in the United Kingdom, in addition to the suspicious denial of his right to plead properly before the Iraqi judiciary against the decision to deport him. The danger that now threatens his life, which is confirmed by the Kuwaiti Minister of Interior receiving him himself, shows the serious violation of human rights committed by the Iraqi authorities, and there is no doubt that they bear the consequences of what may happen to him in Kuwaiti prisons in partnership with the Kuwaiti authorities.
GCHR calls on the competent British authorities to provide blogger Salman Al-Khalidi with full protection as a political refugee in accordance with the 1952 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, and to request the Kuwaiti authorities to allow him to travel to the United Kingdom, where he enjoys the right to political asylum.
GCHR, despite its rejection of some of Al-Khalidi’s practices and statements that do not conform to human rights standards, will remain a voice for the voiceless and for all citizens of our region, including human rights defenders, Internet activists, and other activists who are being betrayed and whose civil and human rights granted to them by international human rights law and local laws are being violated.
