The Arab Interior Ministers Council: What is it and why are there human rights concerns?

UAE authorities confirmed on Friday that Egyptian activist and poet Abdul Rahman Yousef al-Qaradawi was extradited from Lebanon this week with the help of the Arab Interior Ministers Council (AIMC).

The security body, run by members of the Arab League, has been behind - or believed to be involved in - the extradition of several high-profile individuals in recent years.

When was the AIMC created?

Arab League members envisioned the AIMC as early as 1977 but finally established the body in 1982. Its aim is to develop and strengthen security cooperation and crime prevention efforts between Arab countries.

At the first session of the council, then-Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud told members gathered in Morocco that the AIMC would implement “the unity of our will to achieve a secure and stable climate that pervades our dear Arab homeland”.

How does the AIMC operate?

The body is run by a general secretariat based in Tunis and headed by a rotating secretary-general, chosen from candidates from member states and renewable every three years. Saudi academic Mohammad Bin Ali Kuman has held the role since 2001.

Its areas of focus include counterterrorism, drug control and civil defence. 

The AIMC also circulates arrest warrants and data on crimes across member states. This information sharing system, similar to Interpol and other regional security networks, means wanted individuals can be apprehended across the region.

Why are human rights groups worried about AIMC?

Unlike Interpol, AIMC warrants are not a matter of public record. Human rights groups and UN experts warn that those subject to them are unable to take steps to have their warrants removed.

They have also criticised the AIMC for failing to protect people who are wanted for political motives from being sent to countries where they are at risk of ill-treatment and unfair trials.

Aside from the case of Abdul Rahman Yousef al-Qaradawi, other individuals are believed to have been extradited or even forcibly disappeared for politically motivated reasons in actions triggered by AIMC-circulated warrants.

Sherif Osman, an Egyptian-American activist and former Egyptian Air Force captain, was detained in Dubai in November 2022 while visiting his sister, purportedly after Egypt circulated a warrant for his arrest. In the month leading up to his arrest, he had been calling on social media for protests during the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt. Osman was freed more than 40 days later after US officials intervened.

In January 2023, Hassan al-Rabea, a Saudi national, was arrested at Marrakesh Airport in Morocco on an AIMC warrant issued by Saudi Arabia and extradited after court hearings conducted over several weeks. According to the warrant, Saudi authorities sought to try him for leaving the kingdom with the help of “terrorists”.

His family says that he was punished for anti-government protests that his relatives, not al-Rabea himself, had been involved in years earlier. He is currently held in Dammam Prison.

Five months later, Khalaf al-Romaithi, an Emirati-Turkish dual national, was arrested while arriving in Jordan on a UAE warrant believed to have been circulated by the AIMC. Romaithi had been convicted in absentia in the UAE’s largest mass trial, described by rights groups as grossly unfair.

He disappeared in Jordan before his case went through scheduled court hearings and then reappeared in the UAE. His current whereabouts are unknown.