The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found that the Republic of Serbia violated the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) when it extradited Bahraini national Ahmet Jaafar Mohamed Ali to Bahrain in January 2022 despite the ECtHR’s interim measure requiring of the Belgrade authorities to stay the extradition pending the completion of proceedings before that court due to the risk of Mr. Ali’s torture and political and religious persecution. In its judgment on the application filed by Mr. Ali,[1] the ECtHR found Serbia in violation of two articles of the ECHR – Article 3 on the prohibition of torture and degrading or humiliating treatment and punishment and Article 34 on the right of submission of individual applications to the Court.
The ECtHR found that the Belgrade High and Appeal Courts, which had ruled on the extradition, had failed to examine the general situation in Bahrain and the risks of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Mr. Ali, an opponent of the Bahraini regime, could be subjected it. Mr. Ali had been detained and tortured by the Bahraini security services and sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia.
The ECtHR specified that, instead of conducting a substantive analysis of the applicant’s alleged fear of persecution, the Serbian bodies confined themselves to a formal examination of the statutory requirements for the applicant’s extradition. It observed that the Ministry of Justice had not engaged in any examination of the applicant’s submissions in November 2021, when he was detained pending extradition. Mr. Ali had expressed the intention to seek asylum in Serbia before the Serbian extradition court, claiming he would be at risk of torture and persecution if returned to his country of origin.
The BCHR filed a constitutional appeal against the Appeal Court and Justice Ministry decisions on 18 February 2022. However, the Constitutional Court failed to rule on the appeal although more than three years have passed since it was submitted. The Serbian Protector of Citizens opened the case of Mr. Ali’s extradition on his own motion and found, in August 2022, that there had been no unlawfulness or irregularities either in the extradition procedure or in the asylum process in the applicant’s case.
The extradition of Ahmet Ali to the Kingdom of Bahrain is a clear example of unlawful conduct by decision-makers in the Republic of Serbia. It constitutes a violation of a decision of the ECtHR and gross disregard for international treaties and regulations binding on Serbia, as well as norms of customary international law. Regrettably, Ahmet Ali’s extradition in 2022 is not an isolated incident. In 2019, Serbia was involved in a similar case when it unlawfully extradited Cevdet Ayaz, a Turkish national and Kurdish political activist, to Turkey. The consequences of Serbia’s extradition decisions in these cases – taken in defiance of ECtHR’s interim measures – are damaging to Serbia and its reputation before international bodies, raising serious concerns about the rule of law, legal certainty, and respect for human rights in the country.
[1] ECtHR, Ali v. Serbia, App. No. 4662/22, judgment of 25 March 2025.
