France launches case against Interpol president over torture allegations
France has launched a case against the Emirati Interpol president Ahmed Naser al-Raisi for torturing and arbitrarily detaining two Britons in the United Arab Emirates.
Matthew Hedges and Ali Issa Ahmed both accuse Raisi, a senior interior ministry official for the Emirates, of holding ultimate responsibility for torturing them and detaining them arbitrarily in the UAE.
A source close to the case told AFP that French anti-terror prosecutors had handed Raisi's case to an investigating magistrate who would decide whether to press charges.
Both Britons appeared in front of the investigating magistrate on Wednesday to testify against Raisi and filed their complaint based on universal jurisdiction, which allows states to prosecute serious crimes even if committed on foreign soil.
The decision to hand the case over to the investigating magistrate means that, if Raisi sets foot in France, he would be detained for questioning.
Interpol's headquarters are in the southeastern French city of Lyon and Raisi is already believed to have visited Lyon several times since January.
The case was opened at the end of March, the source told AFP.
Hedges, an academic and expert on the Emirates, was detained in the UAE in 2018 for seven months on espionage charges. He was eventually pardoned but accused Raisi of ordering his detention.
Ahmed was arrested in the UAE in January 2019 and "beaten" for wearing a Qatar replica football shirt in the Emirates to an Asian Cup tie between Qatar and Iraq.
'A good day'
In a statement, Ahmed described the decision to hand Raisi's case to the investigating magistrate as a "good day" in his fight for justice.
"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," said Ahmed.
Hedges added that it was a "real moment of pride" to give evidence against Raisi to the investigating magistrate.
"Given the human rights record of the UAE it was incredible that al-Raisi was even elected as president," Hedges said in a statement.
"The torture that myself, Ali, and countless other people in the UAE have suffered is, unfortunately, the norm in the UAE."
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