(see related)Amnesty
International said Friday arrested human rights lawyer Rachid
Mesli risks persecution if extradited back to his home country
of Algeria.
"Mesli is not responsible for terrorism, but risks
suffering further persecution if he returns to Algeria," Amnesty
International Italy spokesperson Riccardo Nouri told ANSA.
"German and British judicial authorities have released him
in the past after being apprised of information we provided".
Mesli was arrested in the early afternoon on Wednesday at
the Swiss-Italy border on an international warrant from Algeria.
A Turin appeals court must rule on his extradition within
96 hours of his arrest.
Amnesty is writing the court and Aosta prosecutors on his
behalf.
Mesli in 2004 co-founded Alkarama (Arabic for Dignity), a
Swiss-based human rights NGO assisting all those subjected to,
or at risk of, extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture,
and arbitrary detention in the Arab world.
According to a 2013 United States Treasury Department
report, one of Alkarama's members funds the al-Qaeda Islamic
fundamentalist terror organization.
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