On Monday, the Court of Cassation in Rabat began hearing the case of the extradition of Australian of Saudi origin Usama al-Hasani, whose wife fears that he will be tortured and even face death if he is handed over to Saudi authorities.

Al-Hasani was arrested on February 8th upon arrival in Morocco, where he was planning to reunite with his wife and newly born baby.

“I call on the Moroccan authorities to release my innocent husband … I fear that he will face a fate similar to that of Khashoggi if he is extradited to Saudi Arabia,” his wife said, referring to the journalist who was killed by Saudi agents at the Kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

“The court has not pronounced a judgment yet,” she said, adding that her husband “did not engage in overt or covert political activity against Saudi Arabia.”

An official at the Moroccan Ministry of Justice said that the arrest came after the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) issued a warrant at the request of Saudi Arabia, adding that Al-Hasani is wanted in a case that falls under the penal code and includes theft.

A source who attended the session at the Court of Cassation in Rabat said that the defense stated that Saudi documents indicate that Al-Hasani was born to a Moroccan father, making him Moroccan according to the country’s law.

The source quoted the lawyers as saying that Moroccan law prohibits the extradition of Moroccans to other countries.

“Morocco has ratified a convention against torture and it should refrain from handing over a citizen to a country where he may face torture” said Khadija Riyadi, member the Moroccan Association for Human Rights.

For his part, a spokesman for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade added that the circumstances of under which Al Hasani was arrested and the possibility of his extradition are of concern to Australia.

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A hashtag has spread widely on social media in recent days calling on Moroccan authorities not to hand over Saudi citizen Usama al-Hasani to Saudi authorities.

Saudi and Arab human rights’ activists have appealed to King Mohammed VI to intervene to release Dr. Usama al-Hasani, for fear of him being imprisoned and tortured by Saudi authorities.

A number of activists stated that “the dissident, Usama al-Hasani, a Saudi who holds Australian citizenship, was arrested by Moroccan authorities at the request of Saudi Arabia, and may be deported to Saudi Arabia to face torture and perhaps slow killing there,” calling on “Morocco not to deport him to the KSA.”

Prisoners of Conscience’s account on Twitter, which is concerned with providing follow-up for Saudi opinion detainees, has published an open letter circulated by a number of academics, media professionals and human rights activists, through which they called on King Mohammed VI to intervene to release Al-Hasani.

The same letter indicated that “Dr. Usama al-Hasani will be in grave danger, as soon as he is deported from Morocco and handed over to Saudi authorities”, warning that there are real fears that he will be killed, as happened with journalist Jamal Khashoggi, or that he will be put under forced disappearance for many years, like many other Saudi prisoners of conscience.

The letter also pointed out that Al-Hasani, who was a former member of the teaching staff at King Abdulaziz University, holds an Australian citizenship, and did not engage in any political opposition activity during his stay in the UK.

Under the hashtag #do_not_deport_Usama_Al-Hasani, Mauritanian academic, Mohamed El-Moctar Shinqiti wrote: “I wish King Mohammed VI to personally intervene and prevent the deportation of Al-Hasani to Saudi Arabia, where he will face torture, and possibly murder, injustice and aggression.”

It is noteworthy that Al Hasani was arrested upon arrival in Morocco under the request of Saudi authorities; a spokesperson for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) confirmed that they were providing consular assistance to a citizen detained in Morocco, but he refused to provide further information, due to privacy considerations. Details from both local and Saudi authorities also remain unobtainable.

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