Dissident Kuwaiti princess 'harassed by Interpol' fears for life

The exiled granddaughter of Kuwait's former ruler has said that her country was using an Interpol red notice to intimidate and harass her and her partner and force their extradition.

Sheikha Moneera Fahad Al-Sabah, and her dissident blogger partner Mesaed Al-Mesaileem, said they faced torture and threats to life if they were returned to Kuwait due to their political activism. Both have criticised the state on social media and called out corruption.

Al Sabah is the granddaughter of Kuwait's late ruler Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al-Sabah and the great-niece of the country's current Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.

She and her partner fled to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2020 and gave up their passports in exchange for yellow asylum seeker cards, issued by the UN high commissioner for refugees. Their asylum has not been granted, which means they were at risk of being sent back to Kuwait imminently.

Kuwait has placed an Interpol red notice for Mesaileem, according to The Guardian. This gives the state the same authority it would if he had an international arrest warrant, but the couple's lawyer said it was most likely issued under "false pretext".

They say that men raided their house in 2020 and claimed to be Interpol officers acting on a red notice issued in 2018 on charges that they had "possessed weapons".

“They’re going to kill me. They’ve raised some [legal] cases in Kuwait against me for assaulting the being of the royal family,” Sabah, 35, told The Guardian, adding that she was imprisoned by her father for nearly a year.

TROUBLED PRINCESS. #SheikhaMoneera Fahad al-Sabah, a #Kuwaitiprincess seeking asylum in Bosnia-Herzegovina claimed the Kuwaiti govt. is using an @INTERPOL_HQ red notice to intimidate & harass her & her partner, a prominent dissident blogger. https://t.co/LAuigUgjCg pic.twitter.com/oMtZwvCANn

— Rights Corridor (@RightsCorridor) March 4, 2022

"When I first started speaking about corruption, they accused me of being mentally ill, and said I need to be in an institute. So, I’m scared they will lock me up, take my phones away, not let me speak because I have a lot of secrets."

Mesaileem was sentenced 87 times in his home country on charges linked to his political activism, including using his mobile phone to organise demonstrations and "insulting" the emir on social media. He claims to have been mistreated in periods of detention in Kuwaiti prisons.