Dear Royal Jet team,
We, MENA Rights Group, are writing to express our utmost concern regarding your company’s possible involvement in the forthcoming extradition of Egyptian-Turkish dissident Abdul Rahman Al-Qaradawi from Lebanon to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
MENA Rights Group is a Geneva-based legal advocacy NGO defending and promoting fundamental rights and freedoms in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
We are reaching out as a signatory to a joint letter signed by 500+ other organisations and individuals urging the Lebanese authorities to immediately release Mr Al-Qaradawi and to not extradite him to Egypt or the UAE, where he risks human rights abuses, following his arrest upon his arrival on Lebanese territories coming from Syria on December 28, 2024.
Despite civil society concerns, the government of Lebanon has approved an extradition request filed by the United Arab Emirates. According to his local lawyer, his extradition is now imminent.
In this context, we noticed that Royal Jet airplane A6-RJA is set to depart from Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport to Al Bateen Executive Airport at 4:30 pm local time.
Would you thus be able to confirm that your company is not involved in the extradition of Mr Al-Qaradawi?
If your company is indeed involved, we fear that by using your company’s aircrafts to carry out Mr Al-Qaradawi wrongful extradition, you would be playing an active role in violating the article 3 of the UN Convention against Torture, which enshrines the principle of non-refoulement.
You would also be in violation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, under which business enterprises’ responsibility to respect human rights requires that they seek “to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts.”
Mr Al-Qaradawi is a Egyptian-Turkish citizen living and working in Turkey. He is also a well-known poet, artist and activist of Egyptian descent whose creative work reflects his thoughts, opinions and concerns about political and social issues across the Middle East and North region and particularly in Egypt. His art and poetry have included expressions of criticism and concern for the policies and practices of the Egyptian Government dating as far back as 2010 when he lived in Egypt and sought to foster a culture of peace, freedom and respect for all.
In light of the above, we ask your company not to be involved in the extradition of Mr Al-Qaradawi on the basis of the principle of non-refoulement.
We thank you for your consideration and look forward to your response.
MENA Rights Group
