Hakeem al-Araibi

Hakeem Ali Mohammed Ali al-Araibi (حكيم العريبي; born 7 November 1993) is a Bahraini footballer who plays for St Albans Saints.

Hakeem Ali Mohammed Ali al-Araibi was born in Bahrain on 7 November 1993.

He became a professional footballer there, playing as a defender for the Bahrain national football team and for local Manama club Al-Shabab.

Al-Shabab spent years in Bahrain's top division and included a number of young players who had represented the country's various national youth teams.

Al-Araibi was one of these, playing for Bahrain's Olympic team.

As a 15-year-old in 2009, he had been spotted playing by a school teacher, whose suggestion to a local scout brought him to the attention of the Bahrain Football Association (BFA).

In 2009 his family lived in Jidhafs, a few kilometres west of Manama.

He has a brother, Emad, who is imprisoned in Bahrain for the same offence as that with which Hakeem is being charged.

In 2010 he was called up to the Under-17 squad.

He was overjoyed, and saw the national teams as symbols of unity between the Shia and Sunni populations of the country.

Emad had come to the attention of authorities as an activist before the 2011 Bahraini uprising during the Arab Spring, and one night at the end of 2011 police turned up at the family home at 3am, looking for him.

As Emad was not there, they took Hakeem, accused him of burning tyres, which he denied, and held him for three months, until February 2011 and the uprising was under way.

The BFA (then headed by Sheikh Salman ), targeted Al-Shabab, being a Shia club, and for almost a year after the revolution there was no football there.

Eventually they demoted the club to the second division.

Al-Araibi spoke out against the persecution and torture of other footballers who had demonstrated against the ruling regime during the Bahraini uprising of 2011 (which was mostly led by Bahrain's majority Shia, as is al-Araibi, whilst the ruling family is Sunni ).

After his arrest and detention in November 2012, Hakeem returned to play for Al-Shabab and in late 2013 was called up for the senior national team by the newly-appointed English coach, Anthony Hudson.

On his 19th birthday on 7 November 2012, walking on his way to a café in Bahrain, he was picked up by Bahraini security forces.

They accused him of vandalising a police station four days earlier, based on the supposed confession of his brother Emad, who allegedly told them that Hakeem had been part of a crowd of protesters who set upon the building with Molotov cocktails.

The next day Al-Araibi told the public prosecutor he had been playing in a televised football match when the attack took place and denied the allegations.

But his detention was extended for 45 days, during which he says security forces tried to torture a confession out of him.

He told German broadcaster ARD "They spent three hours hitting me hard on my legs, while saying we will break your bones, we will destroy your future, you will never play football again with these legs."

He was then released on bail.

After fleeing the country, al-Araibi was tried in absentia for vandalism of Al Khamees police station in Manama on 3 November 2012, when, according to police, a mob of 150 people had attacked the building, throwing Molotov cocktails and smashing windows, which he denies, and sentenced to ten years in prison.

Amnesty International describe this trial as "unfair".

The alleged vandalism was said to have taken place at around the time that al-Araibi was playing in a televised football match.

The time of the attack on the police station is key to Hakeem Al-Arabi's alibi.

His brother said the attack took place at 6.30 pm, but Hakeem was playing in a nationally televised game for his club Al-Shabab at the Al-Muharraq Stadium from 5.30 pm to 7.20 pm, with the Bahrain Football Association, the Al-Shabab club and fellow players confirming this.

Footage from the game broadcast by Bahrain Sports Channel 1 showing al-Araibi playing was also submitted.

However prosecution said that the mob had gathered earlier and the attack had taken place at 8 pm and that Hakeem would have had enough time to leave the stadium after finishing the match and take part in it 40 minutes later.

The Al Khamees police station is 20 km south-west of the stadium, across on the other side of the city, and it was a Saturday night.

In November 2013 al-Araibi travelled with the national team to Qatar for the 2014 West Asian Football Federation Championship, where the team drew 0–0 with Iraq on 28 December 2013.

He played for local club Al-Shabab and in the Bahraini national team before he fled as a dissident and refugee when the team was in Qatar in January 2014.

He has played for various teams in Victoria since 2015, and since 2022 has played for St Albans Saints in NPL Victoria.

He also holds a permanent position as Community and Human Rights Advocate with Football Victoria.

In November 2018, he was arrested on arrival in Thailand for a vacation from Australia, on the basis of an Interpol "red notice" issued by Bahrain.

He was held there pending deportation to Bahrain, which he opposed.

He became an Australian citizen in 2019.

There was a campaign urging Thailand not to extradite him until 11 February 2019, when the Thai Office of the Attorney-General dropped the extradition case against him at Bahrain's request.

He was returned to Australia the next day and became an Australian citizen shortly afterwards.

The story of the campaign to free al-Haraibi is told in the 2023 documentary film The Defenders, by filmmaker Matthew Bate.