Lebanon to extradite Egyptian activist Qaradawi to UAE
The Lebanese government said it has decided to grant an Emirati request to hand over Egyptian opposition activist Abdul Rahman al-Qaradawi, son of the late spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Qaradawi, also wanted by the Egyptian authorities, was arrested in Lebanon late last month after he crossed the border from Syria, a Lebanese judicial official told AFP at the time.
The arrest was linked to an Egyptian ruling in absentia sentencing Qaradawi to five years' jail on charges of "opposing the state and inciting terrorism", the official added.
Since the December 28 arrest, both Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have requested his extradition, according to another judicial official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makari told a news conference on Tuesday that Qaradawi "will be deported to the Emirates", adding that the decision was made in a cabinet meeting a short while earlier.
According to the second judicial official, the UAE's request was based on a video Qaradawi had posted online from Damascus's Umayyad Mosque, celebrating the overthrow of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad last month and calling for "victory" in other countries.
In the video, Qaradawi also warns Syrians of "malicious regimes" in "the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt".
The Lebanese official said the Emiratis considered it "incitement" against the UAE and an attempt to "destabilize" the Gulf country.
Qaradawi, who is also a poet, is the son of prominent Sunni scholar Yousuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood which is blacklisted as a "terrorist group" in both Egypt and the UAE.
Yousuf al-Qaradawi was imprisoned several times in Egypt over his links to the Muslim Brotherhood. He died in 2022 after decades in exile in Qatar.
Abdul Rahman al-Qaradawi was a political organizer against the government of longtime Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in 2011 in the Arab Spring uprising.
He later became a vocal opponent of current Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who in 2013 overthrew elected president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Source: Agence France Presse
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