Activists Start Campaign for Thailand to Free Bahraini Soccer Player
- #SaveHakeem being used to focus on Bahraini Hakeem al-Araibi
- Refugee Al-Araibi was detained during holday trip to Thailand
Human rights groups and the Australian football community hold a protest in front of the Opera House for the release of refugee footballer Hakeem al-Araibi in Sydney on Jan. 10.
Photographer: Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images
A rights group has started a Twitter campaign to encourage people to write to the Thai junta leader on behalf of a Bahraini soccer player who is being detained in Bangkok but has refugee status in Australia.
Hakeem al-Araibi came to Thailand for a honeymoon and was arrested under a request from Bahrain via an Interpol notice that has since been invalidated, Human Rights Watch said in a statement Tuesday. The country’s military government should release him and let him return to his wife and soccer team in Australia, it said.