Qatar deports Saudi citizen to Riyadh

Qatar announced on Monday that it has deported Saudi citizen Mohamed Al-Otaibi, 49, to Riyadh, Anadolu news agency has reported. An official source in the Qatari foreign ministry confirmed the deportation, which took place last Wednesday, to the official Qatar news agency QNA.

“The extradition was based on legal procedures and regional and international agreements relating to the extradition of accused persons and criminals,” QNA reported the official as saying.

The move was criticised by Amnesty International on Sunday. It said that the deportation of the “human rights defender” to Saudi Arabia put him in “danger of imprisonment and torture.”

“At dawn on 28 May 2017, Al-Otaibi and his wife were forcibly deported to Saudi Arabia while on their way to Norway,” noted the Gulf Centre for Human Rights. The group pointed out that Norway had agreed to provide travel documents to Al-Otaibi and his wife and to grant them asylum when they arrived in Oslo.

Al-Otaibi was charged last October of posting tweets that could cause public disorder in Saudi Arabia, as well as retweeting tweets that “defame” the Kingdom. He fled to Qatar in February as soon as a travel ban was lifted.

The deportation came at a time of serious tension between Qatar and Saudi Arabia over remarks allegedly made by the Qatari Emir that infuriated Riyadh. Qatar has denied the authenticity of the remarks, saying that the official website of the QNA had been hacked when the “Emir’s statement” was posted.