Mesaed Al Musaileem is a Kuwaiti businessman who regularly expresses himself on social networks on political matters pertaining to Kuwait and the Arab world. He was first arrested in Kuwait in 2011 on accusations of defamation of the late Emir of Kuwait and of the judiciary on his personal Twitter account.

While in detention, he was subjected to torture and ill- treatment by the state security forces. On one occasion, he was hospitalised due to the injuries he sustained from the physical assault by the prison guards. He was released on bail on December 24, 2012.

On January 24, 2015, Al Mesaileem was arrested in Kuwait and charged with “committing a hostile act against a foreign country (Saudi Arabia) in a public place, namely Twitter, through his personal account that proved in the investigations he wrote consistent phrases which would expose the State of Kuwait to severing political relations with Saudi Arabia”. He was also charged with possession of arms and ammunition without a license. It has been reported that the gun and rifles he was accused of possessing were retrieved during a security raid at his father’s house. They were not registered in his name nor were they in his possession.

On May 17, 2015, he was released on bail and, in June 2015, was able to go abroadleave Kuwait to Asia before the trial was concluded.

On November 8, 2015, the Court of First Instance acquitted him of the charges related to social media activities against Saudi Arabia. However, he was found guilty of the illegal possession of weapons. The Court sentenced him in absentia to five years of imprisonment with hard labour. The ruling was later upheld by the court of appeal as well as the court of cassation.

While he was already abroad, Al Mesaileem continued to be charged and sentenced in absentia for having exercised his right to freedom of expression.

On April 26, 2016, Al Mesaileem was sentenced to one year in prison for using his cell phone to call for rallies and demonstrations. On May 7, 2018, the Criminal Court of first instance sentenced him to five years in prison for having publicly faulted the Emir and insulted him on social media (via Twitter). On May 27, 2019, he was sentenced to five years in prison for having publicly challenged and insulted the rights and powers of the Emir. As part of this case, he also faced the charges of committing hostile acts against a foreign country (the United Arab Emirates) and spreading false and malicious news and rumours about the internal conditions of the country from abroad, while holding the Kuwaiti citizenship.

In December 2019, Al Mesaileem was again convicted in two separate trials. In the first one, he was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of defamation and for having “insulted the judiciary, misused the phone and spread false news”. In the second one, he was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of deliberately spreading false news and malicious rumours abroad about the internal situation in the country, undermining the authority of the emir by publishing the sentences indicated in the newspapers through his account on Twitter, and intentionally abusing a means of telephone communication.

Since July 2017, Al Mesaileem has resided in Bosnia and Herzegovina where he applied for asylum in 2018. On February 15, 2020, Mr. Al Mesaileem received a text message from the local Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) informing him that his asylum application had been rejected. He appealed the decision, to no avail.

On April 9, 2020, Al Mesaileem was arrested at his house in Ilijaš. The following day, the Court of Sarajevo began examining an extradition request of Kuwait and a red notice issued by Interpol at Kuwait’s request in 2018. Al Mesaileem was then placed under house arrest by the Bosnian authorities. The extradition procedure was temporarily suspended pending the examination of his appeal against the rejection of his asylum application.

Although the Bosnian Ministry of Security confirmed the rejection of Al Musaileem’s request for asylum, Al Musaileem was granted protective status on the basis of non-refoulement, as prescribed by article 6 (2) of the Bosnian Law on Asylum and article 3 of the Convention against Torture.

Fearing that the red notice against Al Musaileem was requested in order to ensure his forced return to Kuwait for the sole purpose of him serving the prison sentences related to the exercise of his freedom of expression, we asked the Commission for the control of INTERPOL’s Files to cancel the red notice against Al Musaileem.

Following our request, the said Commission first suspended the red notice against Al Musaileem, citing “serious concerns” with regard to a possible breach of articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of the ICPO-INTERPOL, which respectively provide for the adherence to the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” and forbid INTERPOL to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial characters.

On May 13, 2022, the Commission withdrew the red notice and deleted the information concerning Al Musaileem from their records. To date, he remains under house arrest. We thus call on the Bosnian authorities to end his deprivation of liberty and to allow him to travel without undue restrictions.