Lebanon to extradite son of late Muslim cleric al-Qaradawi to UAE, PM's office says

Lebanon is set to extradite the son of late senior Muslim cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi to the United Arab Emirates after the country's caretaker cabinet approved the move on Tuesday, the Lebanese prime minister's office said.

Abdul Rahman al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian-Turkish poet, was detained in Lebanon on Dec. 28 after returning from Syria, according to his lawyer Mohammad Sablouh and human rights group Amnesty International.

His arrest followed critical comments Qaradawi made of the UAE, Saudi Arabian and Egyptian authorities in a video posted online.

The UAE and Egypt have both filed requests for his extradition.

The requests "are believed to be based on the legitimate exercise of his right to freedom of expression," Amnesty International's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Sara Hashash said in a statement on Tuesday, urging Lebanese authorities to reject the extradition requests.

The Egyptian and Emirati foreign ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Qaradawi's lawyer said he would file an urgent appeal to block his client's extradition on Wednesday morning but feared the poet might be flown out of the country before then.

Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, a spiritual guide to the Muslim Brotherhood who championed the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings and unsettled rulers in Egypt and the Gulf with his Islamist preaching, died in 2022.

Born in Egypt, Qaradawi spent much of his life in Qatar, where he became one of the Arab world's most influential Sunni Muslim clerics thanks to regular appearances on Qatar's Al Jazeera television network.

Broadcast into millions of homes, his sermons fuelled tensions that led Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies to impose a blockade on Qatar in 2017 and declare Qaradawi a terrorist.