IHRC action alert

The Islamic Human Rights Commission have issued the following alert, about a brother (who is a British citizen) who is facing extradition to Algeria from Italy (hat tip: MPAC UK). Emphases are mine.

23 February 2005

URGENT ALERT: Stop Extradition of Nadir Remli to Algeria

Nadir Remli is a British national facing extradition to Algeria from Italy. On the 22nd February 2005, Nadir went on a holiday to Italy with his 11 year old son. He was arrested on arrival at Milan airport at approximately 1700. At 1930, he called his wife in Britain to inform her of his arrest.

According to the British Embassy Nadir Remli has been arrested on an international arrest warrant.

Nadir has been living in Britain since 1982 and has been a British national for over a decade. He is married to a British woman and has five young children. If there was an international arrest warrant for him, why was he never arrested in Britain? Nadir is a law-abiding citizen who has never been in trouble with the police. The British anti-terrorism legislation is so broad that if he was even suspected of involvement in any form of illegal activity, he would have been arrested here in the UK.

Algeria is notorious for its use of torture of detainees. The Algerian government has been routinely condemned for its use of torture by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the UN among others. The legal prohibition against torture is absolute. Along with 135 other countries that have ratified the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Italy has committed itself to upholding this fundamental principle of human dignity. Just as governments cannot engage in torture directly, they cannot send people to places where they risk being tortured. The Convention against Torture states that “no State Party shall expel, return or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.” To do so would also be to violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

However, Italy has violated this agreement in the past and has extradited and deported people back to Algeria on “diplomatic assurances” that they would not be ill-treated. Promises of fair treatment by states with well-known records of torture are inherently unreliable as has been seen in previous cases.

Nadir is a member of the opposition Islamic Salvation Front which makes him especially at risk of persecution, torture and possibly death if he is extradited to Algeria. The Algerian government has a brutal reputation of persecuting members of the opposition.

If Nadir is suspected of committing any crime, then as a British national, he must be returned to the UK to face trial. To extradite him to Algeria would be to sign his death warrant.

Read the rest of the alert here at the IHRC’s website.