Hakeem al-Araibi standoff is your problem, Thais tell Australia, Bahrain

The Thai government has urged Australia and Bahrain to resolve the Hakeem al-Araibi case, as it faces pressure to intervene.

Hakeem al-Araibi, a Bahraini refugee and Australian resident, is escorted to a courtroom in Bangkok. Picture: AFP

The Thai government has urged Australia and Bahrain to resolve the case of detained footballer Hakeem al-Araibi as it faces mounting diplomatic pressure and the first football boycott — by Australia’s under-23s soccer team, the Olyroos.

A Thai foreign ministry statement issued today, defending the decision to keep the 25-year-old former Bahrain national football player in jail as it considered Bahrain’s extradition request, suggests the junta is feeling the pressure weeks out from the country’s first democratic elections since a 2014 coup.

It also sought to deflect blame for Mr Araibi’s predicament, pointing out he would not have been detained had it not been for an Interpol red notice alert­ and the fact that “it took several days after (his) arrival before Australian authorities informed us the red notice had been cancelled”.

“By that time, legal proceedings in Thailand regarding Mr Hakeem had already started and could not be reversed,” it said.

“As a sovereign country that has legal obligations and commitments to the international community, Thailand finds itself in the middle of a case involving two countries competing for Mr Hakeem’s custody.

“Thailand has no other legitimate option but to co-operate in accordance with the law and suggest that the two countries, both good friends of Thailand and good friends with one another, talk to each other to sort out their problems and come up with their own solution, instead of trying to find an indirect solution from Thailand.

“Thailand hopes that Australia and Bahrain will have the goodwill to earnestly work together towards finding a win-win solution to this issue.”

Scott Morrison said today Australia was pressing Mr Araibi’s case with Bahrain as well as with Thai authorities, “and I’d simply say this — it is within the executive authority of the Thai government to actually enable him, under their law, to be able to return to Australia”.

The Prime Minister had also stressed in his conversations with Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha how disappointed he would be if “as a result of how this matter has been handled, this relationship between us, the Thai and Australian people, were affected”.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said she too had reiterated Australia’s concerns to the Bahrain government that it should “not proceed with its extradition application” given Mr Araibi was a refugee and a permanent Australian resident.

Mr Araibi has been held by Thai authorities since November 27 when he was arrested on an erroneous Interpol red notice as he arrived in Bangkok with his wife for a delayed honeymoon from their Melbourne home.

He now faces extradition to Bahrain — the country he fled in 2014 after he was rounded up with other pro-democracy protesters and tortured.

Football Federation Australia has announced it had scrapped a planned March training camp in Bangkok for the under-23s Olyroos team ahead of a friendly with China.