French authorities have opened a case against Interpol President Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi of the United Arab Emirates over allegations of torture and arbitrary detention by two Britons detained in the country, according to a source close to the investigation.
The case against the top UAE official has been confirmed by France’s anti-terror prosecutors office (PNAT), which has handed it over to an investigating magistrate, who will now decide whether to press charges.
The two Britons, Matthew Hedges and Ali Issa Ahmad, accuse al-Raisi of having ultimate responsibility — as a senior interior ministry security official — for the torture and arbitrary detention they say they suffered in the UAE.
The source said the investigating magistrate must also decide if al-Raisi, who was elected Interpol president in November, enjoys diplomatic immunity from prosecution in France.
The Britons filed the complaint under France’s principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows it to prosecute serious crimes even if they are committed on foreign soil.
This means al-Raisi could potentially be detained for questioning if his visits the country. Interpol’s headquarters are in the southeastern French city of Lyon.
He is believed to have visited Lyon several times since January.
The case against al-Raisi, opened in late March, goes a step further than the torture inquiry opened against him by French prosecutors in November, over the detention of UAE dissident Ahmed Mansoor.
At the time, the UAE’s foreign ministry rejected the complaints over Mansoor’s detention conditions as “without foundation”.
In the latest case, the inquiry is now in the hands of an investigating magistrate, a step that precedes the pressing of any charges.
Contacted by AFP, the UAE embassy in Paris declined to comment.
Both plaintiffs were in Paris on Wednesday to testify before the investigating magistrate.
Hedges, an academic specialising in the UAE, says he was detained and tortured in the country from May to November 2018 after being arrested on charges of espionage during a study trip.
At a press conference in Lyon last October, he said he had been forced to make false confessions that led to a sentence of life imprisonment before his release under international pressure led by the UK.
Ahmad, meanwhile, says he was repeatedly beaten and even stabbed during a month in detention in January 2019, allegedly for enthusiastically supporting the UAE’s Gulf rival Qatar in a football clash.
In a statement, Hedges said it was a “real moment of pride” to give evidence to the magistrate about the torture he says he suffered.
“Given the human rights record of the UAE it was incredible that al-Raisi was even elected as president. The torture that myself, Ali, and countless other people in the UAE have suffered is unfortunately the norm in the UAE,” he said.
Ahmad said: “So many times I have lost hope that al-Raisi and all the other men that did this to me would get away with it with total impunity, but today is a good day.”
They have also initiated legal action against al-Raisi in Norway, Sweden and Turkey.
Al- Raisi’s four-year term at Interpol is largely ceremonial, with Secretary-General Juergen Stock handling the organization’s day-to-day operations.
His candidacy for the Interpol job sparked outrage among activists, who pointed to Interpol’s generous funding from the United Arab Emirates.
