Beirut, Jan 7 (AP) Lebanon's cabinet voted Tuesday to deport to the United Arab Emirates an Egyptian activist and poet detained by Lebanese security forces after crossing the porous border from Syria last month.

Abdulrahman al-Qaradawi, who is an outspoken critic of Egypt's government who had been residing in Turkey, reportedly visited Syria to join celebrations after the downfall of President Bashar Assad in a lightning insurgent offensive headed by the Islamist group Hayat Tahriri al-Sham.

Also Read | South Korea Political Crisis: Court Grants Extension of Warrant To Detain Impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol Over His Short-Lived Imposition of Martial Law.

His late father, Youssef al-Qaradawi, was a senior and controversial Egyptian cleric revered by the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. He had lived in exile in Qatar for decades.

Abdulrahman al-Qaradawi was wanted in Egypt on charges of disseminating false news and inciting violence, for which he was convicted and sentenced in absentia to five years in prison.

Also Read | Tibet Earthquake: 6.8-Magnitude Quake in Dingri County in Xigaze Kills 126 People, Tremors Felt in Nepal.

Amnesty International said in a statement Tuesday that while visiting Damascus in December, al-Qaradawi had “filmed himself walking around the Umayyad Mosque and criticising the authorities of the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt”.

“According to his family and lawyers, this short clip widely shared on social media triggered his arrest,” the international human rights group said.

Following his arrest, al-Qaradawi was interrogated by Lebanese security forces in relation to the 2017 verdict against him in Egypt as well as the UAE extradition request, Amnesty said.

Sara Hashash, the human rights group's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said that if extradited to Egypt al-Qaradawi would face a “risk of enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment,” and “he would also be at risk of arbitrary detention and other human rights violations if he is returned to the UAE.”

“Forcibly extraditing him to a country where he is likely to face persecution would be a flagrant breach of the principle of non-refoulement under international law,” she said.

The decision is likely to anger Turkey and Qatar, the two main backers of the Muslim Brotherhood, both of which have seen their regional hand strengthened by the fall of Assad in Syria. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)