In a disturbing turn of events, Kuwaiti authorities have co-ordinated directly with Malaysian authorities for the deportation of blogger Mesaed Al-Musaileem, who is a Kuwaiti national. He was recently returned to Kuwait, where he faces a combined total of 30 years in prison for his human rights activism online, and taken into custody.

The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) has previously taken up Al-Musaileem’s case and urged authorities in the country where he was living, Bosnia and Herzegovina, to accept his asylum application before his departure to Malaysia. Malaysian authorities forcibly returned him on 31 May 2025 to Kuwait, in clear violation of international law regarding the protection of asylum seekers.

Al-Musaileem, a well-known blogger in Kuwait, was denied the right to refugee status in Bosnia and Herzegovina despite the ample evidence of threats of persecution against him by the Kuwaiti government solely for his peaceful activities on the Internet.

On 03 May 2023, he informed GCHR in a message of the following: “I miraculously left Bosnia and Herzegovina.” He did not give any further details but immediately tried to re-register with the UNHCR in Kuala Lumpur in order to transfer his file to the new country Malaysia. He submitted for that purpose an online application under the reference RM-10-853729, however his application was ignored for a long time and resulted in his deportation back to Kuwait.

On 31 January 2021, Al-Mesaileem told GCHR that many prison sentences have been issued against him and that they total dozens of years. He stressed that, “I have been targeted by the authorities in Kuwait with numerous cases since 2011 solely due to my peaceful and legitimate work in defense of citizens’ civil rights and humanity, including the Bedoon community in Kuwait.”

Al-Mesaileem began his union work in 2004 when he and his colleagues Dr. Fahd Sayah Al-Dihani and Bandar Al-Nasafi established a union for workers in the Ministry of Endowments, which he left in 2008 to start participating in the public protests and demonstrations that took place in the following years, until he left Kuwait legally in June 2015. In 2017, he decided to live and work in Sarajevo, where he worked legally.

The Public Prosecution in one case charged him with “publicly insulting by writing about the rights and authority of the Emir and insulting him and the Emir’s position by publishing the words and phrases shown in the court documents on his X account.” Likewise, Al-Musaileem also was accused of “deliberately attacking him [the Emir] by using the means of telephone communication (mobile phone), to spread the obscene words and phrases indicated in the subject of the first charge.”

In another case, he was charged with “committing a hostile act against a foreign country (Saudi Arabia) in a public place, namely X, 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.”

His X account is followed by more than 72,000 followers and he used it to express his views as a blogger on public affairs in his country.

Back in February  2021, his lawyer stated that “the cases [by the Kuwaiti government] are related to tweets only and his peaceful participation in gatherings and have no other aspects.” He feared that if he was to be deported to Kuwait, that he will face unfair trials that do not meet minimum international standards or due process.

On 28 January 2022, the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina rejected his application for political asylum in the country. In its decision, which GCHR obtained, the Ministry stated that he was not to be removed from the country for one year due to the stipulated principle of non-refoulement under Article 6 and 16/16 of the law on asylum.

Furthermore, on 17 May 2022, GCHR reported that in an official letter, dated 13 May 2022, the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) declared that Al-Musaileem was not covered by any Red Notice, nor a request to law enforcement agencies to take any legal action against him.

However, Kuwaiti authorities, in violation of international law and INTERPOL’s own rules, managed to get a Red Notice issued by INTERPOL to forcibly bring Al-Musaileem back to prison in Kuwait. This was also widely covered by the local newspapers at the time of his deportation.

In Kuwait, the photo and videos of Al-Musaileem (above), being escorted by plainclothes security forces, were shown on newspapers and social media. The news mentioned that the deportation was based on an INTERPOL Red Notice.

It also published a warning statement from the Minister of Interior, Fahad Al-Youssef, against dissidents abroad, in a clear indication of the political nature of the notice and the abuse of INTERPOL tools. In his warning, Al-Youssef, stated that “those who believed that being out of Kuwait would give them the right to commit insolence, harm and defamation (against Kuwaiti authorities), should repent and see what happened to those who returned before them. There is no way out of getting them back.”

Authorities in Kuwait have issued imprisonment sentences in absentia against Al-Musaileem  of more than 30 years of imprisonment. Strangely enough, his name came up in the pardon list of Kuwait in 2023, and his deportation, and the Red Notice against him violate the order of the pardon. Even if he was not listed as pardoned, the deportation and the political nature of his persecution are alarming, considering the multiple violations of international law on asylum seekers.

The legality of deporting asylum seekers subject to Red Notices under international law depends on several legal principles, such as safeguards against abuse, and procedural requirements. Article 33 of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and its Protocol prohibits returning asylum seekers to countries where their life or freedom would be threatened based on political opinion, or what is known as non-refoulment.

This applies regardless of the Red Notices. In Al-Musaileem’s case, his deportation was based on a politically-motivated Red Notice, and therefore in violation of non-refoulement by subjecting him to unlawful persecution.

In addition, INTERPOL has several safeguards for asylum seekers. Article 3 of INTERPOL’s Constitution prohibits intervention of a political character, and notices of that nature, as in the case of Al-Musaileem, should be cancelled. Enforcing this rule is inconsistent due to the limited vetting capacity of the INTERPOL. Additionally, Red Notices alone are not binding under international law and do not prove guilt or override asylum protections.

Al-Musaileem’s deportation proves that non-refoulment was not respected as the imminent threat of persecution was ignored. The due process in his extradition without judicial review based only on the Red Notice violates his right to due process and also proves the poor vetting of Red Notices which are increasingly issued for political reasons.

It’s not the first time Malaysia has unlawfully extradited citizens who are mostly activists who were deported based solely on their human rights activism or political opinions. Journalist  Hamza Kshagrai, a Saudi national, fled the country in 2012 after he faced a backlash from state figures for posting a poem that was considered religiously offensive. He transited in Malaysia while trying to board a plane to New Zealand to request asylum. However, Malaysian authorities arrested him in the airport and extradited him on the spot to Saudi Arabia where he was detained without any charges for about a year.

Salman Al-Khalidi, a Kuwaiti blogger, was also illegally extradited from Iraq to Kuwait without due process, despite having refugee status in the United Kingdom. He was brutally beaten and shown in photos as unconscious at the time of his extradition, in a blatant disregard to his human and civil rights. It is ironic that Kuwait is striping the nationalities of thousands of citizens, while forcibly returning and persecuting others who chose to live away from the country for their safety.

These cases highlight the increasing and alarming use of Red Notices or political ties to settle scores by Middle Eastern governments against political activists.

Recommendations

GCHR calls on Kuwaiti authorities to refrain from using INTERPOL or political ties to forcibly return dissidents or activists who exercise their rights to free speech in the safety of other countries.

Also, authorities in Kuwait should immediately and unconditionally release blogger Mesaed Al-Musaileem and grant him the right to choose which country he wishes to live in.

Both the Malaysian and Kuwaiti authorities have to defer to the international laws and norms on refugees and asylum seekers to ensure due process and people’s rights of choice of a safe country.

GCHR urges INTERPOL to heighten the vetting capacity for notices issued by autocratic countries like Kuwait, both to adhere to its own rules and to prevent using the notices for political reasons.