CANBERRA: Al-Araibi met with Morrison in Canberra on Thursday to thank him for securing his release from prison in Bangkok earlier this week.
“It’s wonderful to have you here, I know it’s been a trying time for you,” Morrison told al-Araibi at the Australian parliament in Canberra in front of reporters.
“We are so pleased you are here now and that you can come and live your life here in Australia,” the prime minister added.
Morrison said he hoped to see al-Araibi at a ceremony to grant Australian citizenship soon, adding: “I don’t think it’s too far away”.
Al-Araibi was released on Monday after an international outcry and continuous, intense lobbying from the Australian government, human rights groups, football stars, sporting bodies and the public.
The 25-year-old was apprehended at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport during a holiday with his family in late November after the Bahraini authorities put out a warrant for his arrest.
Al-Araibi thanked Morrison and foreign minister, Marise Payne, as well as former Australia men’s football captain, Craig Foster, who helped lead the campaign to free him.
He said he is back in training next week with his Melbourne-based club Pascoe Vale.
Morrison gifted al-Araibi a soccer ball, which he signed “Welcome home, Hakeem,” and asked the footballer to sign another one for him.
Al-Araibi was in a Bangkok jail for 76 days before the Thai Criminal Court dropped the deportation case on Monday that would have sent him back to his native country.
The former Bahrain national football player was convicted in Bahrain in absentia in 2014 on charges of vandalising a police station in 2012, which he denies, and was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Al-Araibi has said in the past that he was tortured in his home country for criticising a relative of the royal family.
He fled to Australia in 2014, where he is recognised as a refugee and was granted permanent residency in 2017.
It is not clear why the Thai authorities dropped the case.
Bahrain later announced that it was seeking al-Araibi’s extradition from Australia, but Australian authorities told dpa they would not oblige as Australia does not have a bilateral extradition treaty with Bahrain.
As an Australian Permanent Resident and a protected person, al-Araibi could not be surrendered in breach of international obligations.
The arrest in Thailand was made after Bahrain issued an Interpol Red Notice for al-Araibi’s detention.
The Australian authorities allegedly tipped off Thai officials that al-Araibi was travelling to Thailand, without mentioning that he was a refugee and had been granted protection.
The matter is under investigation by Australia’s federal police. – dpa/Bernama
