The Egyptian Human Rights Forum has condemned the continued enforced disappearance of poet and activist Abdulrahman Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, marking 300 days since he was abducted and forcibly deported by the United Arab Emirates with Lebanon's complicity.
Al-Qaradawi, who holds both Egyptian and Turkish citizenship, was arrested by Lebanese authorities on Dec. 28, 2024, and handed over to the UAE on Jan. 8, 2025—a move the forum described as a “blatant violation” of the international principle of non-refoulement and basic legal safeguards.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the forum said UAE authorities have refused to disclose Al-Qaradawi’s location or legal status, and continue to block all contact with his family and legal team.
Al-Qaradawi’s family was granted a single, heavily surveilled visit on Aug. 24, inside an undisclosed security facility, according to the forum's statement. The meeting lasted just under 10 minutes. Relatives described him as exhausted and speaking cautiously. Since then, the silence has been absolute. Under international law, this constitutes enforced disappearance, it asserted.
“Prolonged incommunicado detention places Abdulrahman Al-Qaradawi at real risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment,” the forum said, adding that the UAE bears full and direct responsibility for his safety. It also held Lebanon legally and ethically accountable for its role in the handover, which it carried out at the UAE's request.
The forum described the case as a disturbing example of transnational repression, where authoritarian governments collude to hunt down dissidents beyond their borders, exploiting regional security pacts to justify kidnappings and secret detentions.
Al-Qaradawi’s case marks the first known instance of an individual with dual Egyptian-Turkish nationality being deported to a third country with which he has no legal ties, and where he committed no crime.
UN experts, including the Special Rapporteur on Torture and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, issued warnings in January and March 2025, urging UAE officials to disclose Al-Qaradawi's fate.
On Jan. 11, the Egyptian Human Rights Forum renewed a joint appeal—initially signed by 28 human rights organizations and 500 public figures—demanding immediate transparency about Al-Qaradawi’s location, guarantees of his physical and psychological safety, communication with his family and lawyer, and his unconditional release.
Just days before his arrest, Al-Qaradawi appeared in a video from Damascus, denouncing what he called “Arab shame regimes”—openly naming the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. On his return route to Turkey, Lebanese security forces detained him and transferred him to Abu Dhabi, based on the arrest warrant issued against him by the General Secretariat of the Council of Arab Interior Ministers.
The UAE has claimed the warrant was linked to unspecified “activities that aim to stir and undermine public security” — a vague and sweeping charge often used to justify the detention of peaceful critics.
