Mesli 'risks persecution if extradited'

(see related)(ANSA) - Aosta, August 21 - 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.