[soft, whimsical music]
Downloaded from YTS.MX
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
[soft, bright music]
[dance music]
[crowd chanting, clapping]
[soft, tense music]
[soft, energetic music]
[soft, energetic music continues]
[crowd cheering]
[intense music]
[newscaster 1] The life of a refugee footballer
is hanging in the balance.
[newscaster 2] A nightmare far from
what Hakeem Al-Araibi imagined
when he flew off on his honeymoon.
[Hakeem] Please stop them.
[newscaster 3] He believes he's been wrongly targeted
by the Bahraini authorities.
[Phil] Hakeem, unwittingly, had walked into a trap.
[newscaster 4] ...as his extradition case
unfolds between three countries.
[newscaster 5] His supporters included
former Socceroos captain Craig Foster.
[Craig] This is going to bring up issues of corruption,
of human rights abuse.
We're going to have to take on
the biggest powers in world football.
[newscaster 6] The twenty-five-year-old
was brought before the Bangkok court shackled in chains.
[newscaster 7] Now that image shocked the world.
[newscaster 8] A global campaign to free Hakeem.
[overlapping broadcasts in various languages]
[newscaster 5] He lives in terror
of being extradited to Bahrain,
where he could be tortured or even killed.
[Hakeem] Please save me, please.
[Craig] Like the worst criminal.
How is all this occurring?
You know, what's this kid done?
[intense music]
[heavy breathing]
[soft, tense music]
[men shouting]
[Lou] It was a Tuesday night, I remember this distinctly.
We got a message from Hakeem in Thailand.
[Lou] Hakeem has been detained in Thailand.
Detained in Thailand?
What do you mean he's-- What's he done?
[announcer] It was excellent football from Pascoe Vale.
Dangerous ball with a flick, Headers in.
It's a wonderful finish.
Hakeem Al-Araibi.
[Lou] We had re-signed Hakeem in that summer.
The values that he has are very important
to our football club, you know?
Family person, honest player.
If you come up against Hakeem,
you knew you had a battle on your hands.
He was a very tough defender.
I knew he was a refugee,
and he had some sort of issues in Bahrain,
and that the government wanted to-- to persecute him.
Australia took him in.
He's starting to make a life for himself.
[soft, tense music continues]
He's met a lady.
He's gotten married.
They didn't have a chance to have a honeymoon.
And he was taking his wife to Thailand.
[Hakeem's wife laughs]
[aeroplane engine roaring]
[Hakeem] I didn't eat anything here.
If you can, anyone, help me to go back to Australia, please.
[Fatima] He sent voice notes to all the Bahrainis
who are outside Bahrain that he knows.
So, why he is arrested, it didn't make sense.
He has a protection visa.
So, we tried contacting the DFAT.
The lady who answered my call, she's like,
"He's not Australian. I can't do anything for him."
I'm not asking you if he's Australian or not,
I'm telling you that there is a life
of a human being in danger.
And we were trying to figure out
why was Hakeem arrested?
Is he guilty of doing something?
Or, he is really innocent.
[heavy breathing]
[crowd sounds]
[whistle blows]
[game sounds]
[crowd sounds]
[crowd chanting]
[soft, energetic music]
[crowd chanting]
[female newscaster] Well, pro-democracy protests
are continuing to spread across the Middle East.
[male newscaster] Thousands of protestors in Bahrain
are calling for constitutional reform,
and this is the man they chant about:
King Hamad Al Khalifa,
head of the family that has ruled them
for over two centuries.
[protestor] What we're demanding is to live
just like any human being in this world.
[crowd chanting, clapping]
[crowd chanting]
[soft, energetic music continues]
[intense music]
[sirens wailing]
[gunfire]
[indistinct chatter]
[gunfire]
[intense music continues]
[gunshot]
- [indistinct shouting] - [gunfire]
[shouts indistinctly]
[speaking Arabic]
[intense music continues]
[indistinct chatter]
[shouting, chanting]
[indistinct chatter]
[crowd chanting]
- [shouting] - [intense music continues]
[intense music continues]
[jail cell clanging shut]
[intense music continues]
[bottles clinking]
[crowd sounds]
[indistinct announcements]
[glass shattering, explosions]
[rioters shouting]
[intense music continues]
[notification chimes]
[energetic music]
[energetic music continues]
[jail cell clangs shut]
[grim music]
[indistinct shouting]
[heavy breathing]
[waves crashing, seagulls calling]
[soft music]
[soft music continues]
[Hakeem's wife speaking Arabic indistinctly]
[Hakeem's wife laughs]
[soft, solemn music]
[bell tolling]
[Hakeem] I am in detention in Bangkok.
[Sayed] For a honeymoon to be the most drastic event
in your life,
you could imagine what a living nightmare
that the two were going through.
[crowd chanting]
In 2011, I took part in the popular uprising.
[explosion]
[gunfire]
And you can see a scar on my forehead.
This is a mark of a shoe by a police officer.
And then for simply speaking up
about what I experienced and what I witnessed,
I was thrown in a prison,
and I was convicted by a military court
and I fled and came to the UK.
I thought it would be extremely important
to set up an organisation in London
where it would speak out
about the situation in the country.
[Sayed] The most powerful thing Hakeem had
was his own mobile phone.
I was able to speak to Hakeem directly,
ask him, "Would you be able to send me some pictures?"
[cell phone notification]
[energetic music]
I thought a footballer about to be extradited
is an extremely important story,
and my job was to make sure that the whole world
would know about what he was experiencing.
[energetic music continues]
[Phil] As soon as Hakeem was arrested,
people were getting in touch
from the Bahrain human rights networks.
[street sounds]
Hakeem and his wife were met at the gate.
Bahrain had some sort of surveillance on Hakeem
in Australia.
They knew that he was applying for a visa
to go to Thailand.
They knew that they were coming.
Hakeem, unwittingly, had walked into a trap.
The Interpol Red Notice with a photo of Hakeem here,
and it says, "Caution: Dangerous."
One of the core principles of refugee rights
is that you cannot be sent back to a country
where you would face persecution.
But we consistently see regimes will issue
Interpol Red Notices for people who are refugees.
And according to Interpol's own principles,
such Red Notices are supposed to be thrown out.
They are null and void.
So, when I heard that
Australia had formally notified Thailand
of the Red Notice,
I was gobsmacked.
Someone in the Ministry of Home Affairs,
in an incredibly stupid, boneheaded move,
and decided they had to inform the Thais
that he was flying there.
The whole thing was absolutely absurd.
[energetic music continues]
[Hakeem] If you can, anyone,
help me to get back to Australia.
I just want to...
[Tim] Has everyone seen the Red Notice?
Um, so this is the official notice that's been sent around
that actually led to Hakeem's arrest.
The Australian authorities have really messed up
in sending on this illegal document.
[Alexandra] So the Interpol Red Notice
was rescinded when Australia notified Interpol
that Hakeem had a valid
refugee protection visa in Australia,
which meant that the Thai government
had an obligation to release Hakeem
and let him come back to Australia.
They didn't do that.
Now, this was a really unusual move.
There was no valid legal reason
why they should have kept Hakeem,
and that was when we really became aware
that there was some strong lobbying
from the Bahraini authorities to Thailand directly
for the purpose of extraditing him back to Bahrain.
[soft, tense music playing]
[Sayed] In 2014, a Bahraini dissident named Ali Haroon
was stuck in Thailand,
and at that time, we attempted to do whatever in our power
to halt his extradition without success.
[soft, tense music playing]
[Alexandra] We know that Ali Haroon fled
after being imprisoned and tortured in 2013
to Thailand.
And the Thai government then arrested him in 2014
and extradited him back to Bahrain.
He was sedated to get onto the aeroplane.
His injuries were so bad
that when he arrived back in Bahrain,
he had to be hospitalised,
and no one has heard of him or been able to visit him
since 2017.
[Sayed] We know that Hakeem would be next.
Hakeem would be subjected to,
if not, like, similar experience,
if not worse.
The risk of him being handed over was so real.
[sirens blaring]
[Phil] Once Hakeem had been transferred from the airport
to the immigration detention centre in Suan Plu,
he was actually held in an office.
He wasn't put in the general detention population.
And his wife was there too,
and he was able to hold onto his phone.
[soft, tense music playing]
[Phil] My biggest concern was that not enough people
knew what was happening
and that if Thailand tried to pull a fast one,
there was going to be some sort of secret deal,
there would be no way we could stop it.
[cameras clicking]
No.
[newscaster] Hakeem Al-Araibi has spent his first nights
in the main remand prison in Bangkok,
after almost two weeks detained at the airport
and an immigration centre.
[reporter 1] Hakeem, what's your message?
[reporter 2] What do you want to say?
[reporter 2] What do you hope happens today?
I don't-- I don't know.
I don't want to go back to Bahrain,
I want to go back to Australia.
I didn't do anything in Bahrain.
I am a refugee in Australia.
I will get citizenship soon in Australia.
I am Australian, not Bahraini.
I didn't do anything.
[soft, tense music]
[Craig] It's just this vulnerable kid, a footballer.
You know, he's just-- he's a footballer,
he's the same as me,
just with a different passport.
[crowd cheering]
And here he is with a whole country
trying to pull this kid back where he'd been tortured.
And he's facing torture again.
And I just couldn't believe it.
[Hakeem] Please stop them.
[officers speaking Thai]
[man] Keep going, keep going.
Chase him, chase him. It's still yours.
[children shouting]
[Craig] We're blessed in Australia, playing football,
because it's such a diverse game.
Since the age of probably fifteen,
when I started to move into our junior national teams,
I was in a mix of Australians of every ethnicity,
every religion, every culture
and that's really a gift.
No one could believe that this team came from
some unknown soccer nation called Australia.
[crowd cheering]
The game just places us in the middle
of this melting pot of cultures.
That's been central to developing my world view.
[crowd cheering]
[announcer 1] Here's Aloisi for a place in the World Cup.
He scores!
- Australia have done it! - [announcer 2] Come on!
Come on, Australia!
[crowd cheering]
[Craig] This is what it's about.
The tension and the passion.
Good morning, everyone, I'm Craig Foster,
SBS's chief football analyst.
With twenty years in the media
and the profile I had in the game in Australia,
I knew that I had a range of skills
that could help him.
So, I went through the history of Bahraini activism
and human rights abuse against athletes.
The more reading I did,
I knew that he was in deep, deep trouble.
[grim music]
It's clear that something is very, very foul.
[typing]
[newscaster] Gianni Infantino from Switzerland
is one of the favourites
to become FIFA's first new president in eighteen years.
[Gianni] Of course I'm confident.
[newscaster] Sheikh Salman from Bahrain
is the other frontrunner.
[Sheikh Salman] I'm very confident. Very confident.
[newscaster] Though human rights groups claim
he had local soccer players arrested
following pro-democracy protests.
[Sayed] Basically, a member of Bahraini ruling family,
Sheikh Salman Al Khalifa,
nominated himself to be elected
as the FIFA president.
At the time when Hakeem was arrested in Bahrain
and subjected to torture,
he was the president
of Bahrain Football Associations.
During 2011, Prince Nasser mandated Sheikh Salman
to be in charge of the committee
which will come after those athletes
which has stood up against the government,
and it was not long before those players
were picked up, and they were subjected
to brutal torture.
This is the man who is going to be in charge
of leading FIFA.
[tense music]
All of a sudden, there was massive media interest
about Bahrain as a subject
because of Sheikh Salman's nomination.
So, back in 2016,
I was trying to find someone who could tell us
what it means to be a footballer
under Salman's leadership,
and I was told that there is this guy
who's currently in Australia.
[newscaster] Hakeem Al-Araibi used to play
for Bahrain's national team.
He was arrested during the crackdown
that followed the uprising.
[Sayed] He was the first person to say
Sheikh Salman failed to protect
footballers in Bahrain.
[ambient music]
[Sayed] It was reported on page one
on The New York Times.
[ambient music continues]
This is a story that hit headlines
across the globe.
[ambient music continues]
[Sheikh Salman] First of all, when you say tortured,
I think allegedly tortured.
These are false, you know, nasty lies
that has been repeated again and again.
[reporter] Surely, on a basic level, as the head
of the National Association,
you have failed those footballers.
They were simply displaying their political viewpoint.
[Sheikh Salman] You cannot accept somebody coming to you
and accusing you of things that you haven't done,
and they're just repeating it again and again.
[intense music]
[newscaster] More than two hundred football associations
from around the world have gathered in Zurich
to vote in the next FIFA President.
[protestors] Stop supporting Salman!
[protestor] Since 2011,
we've had more than one hundred and fifty athletes
arrested and imprisoned,
and so we're looking at a long time issue
with the Bahraini government going after athletes
as a part of the crackdown against democracy
and human rights.
And so, if Sheikh Salman is elected here today,
what kind of message is FIFA sending
about the integrity of FIFA?
[indistinct chanting]
[newscaster] This was the moment Gianni Infantino
became the new face of world soccer.
[applause]
Sheikh Salman from Bahrain came in second.
- Pardon? - [man] Are you disappointed...
[Sheikh Salman] Oh, no, no, no, no, I think, you know,
this is sports, this is fair play,
and we have to show it inside and outside.
All the best for him, thank you.
[crowd roaring]
[tense music]
[tense music continues]
[cameras snapping]
[tense music continues]
[cameras snapping]
[tense music continues]
[cameras snapping]
[door clanks shut]
[engine puttering]
[atmospheric music]
[atmospheric music continues]
[resounding clank]
[birds chirping]
[newscaster] Hakeem Al-Araibi has spent his first nights
in the main remand prison in Bangkok.
In the next sixty days, a court will start deciding
whether to extradite him to Bahrain,
the country he fled,
or return him to Australia.
[Sara] He was clearly left behind
by his own country.
I felt that he was being left behind by Australia now.
Was I into football? No.
Um, was I interested?
Not even a little bit.
[chuckling]
I've come from Bosnia. I'm a refugee myself.
So I sort of had that connection
where I knew he left his home already.
He's got his whole future in front of him,
and all of a sudden, he finds himself detained
while having protection from Australia.
And then I went on Twitter looking,
hoping that I could maybe find somebody talking about it.
[typing]
[ambient music]
[text tone whistling]
[ambient music continues]
[Craig] In those early weeks,
you had Sayed starting to become vocal.
Different organisations here and globally,
they were used to what was going on here.
Bahrain, you know,
were serial offenders in this regard,
so I was in touch with them,
just trying to work out, what could I do.
[ambient music continues]
[Fatima] When we first tweeted about Hakeem,
what is the hashtag that I need to use?
I tried to come up quickly with something.
[Lou] #SaveHakeem.
Fatima and ourselves came up with that
because we felt social media is the only way
that we can get this happening.
[Vitale] Hi, I'm Vitale Ferrante, I'm Hakeem's coach.
All of Australia, we've got to get behind #SaveHakeem.
[Matteo] Please, help us to bring him back to Australia.
[all] ...three! Save Hakeem!
[Craig] I had never really used social media
in any great degree, so I was just
making it up, really, as I went along.
[Sara] It seemed for weeks
all the same names kept popping up,
so we all started sort of helping each other out.
Hakeem is extraordinarily brave,
and for trying to shed light on
the torture of people in Bahrain,
they chased him across the globe.
[Duncan] We're doing it because it's unfair on him.
Bahrain trying to, you know,
punish someone who embarrassed them.
[reporter] It's almost unheard of
for an extradition request in Bangkok
not to be granted.
People like Hakeem Al-Araibi who face
extradition proceedings of this kind,
the vast majority, if not all of them,
do end up being extradited.
[Jo] He could not end up in Bahrain.
Like, that was a death sentence.
[Duncan] We were starting to see names becoming familiar
who are tweeting about the same thing,
trying to raise awareness.
[Sara] We kept retweeting each other,
and... just to keep it going and trying to get this hashtag
to sort of get a life of its own.
[text tone whistling]
[Craig] I started to see that people were sharing his story
and supporting me.
"Craig, we're with you, tell us what to do."
You know, "How can we help?"
[Duncan] Craig gets in touch
and just pops random people together in a group
and said, "You're our social media team."
[typing]
[text tones whistling]
[ambient music continues]
[Sara] I think he did actually act as a coach to the team
and he guided us as to where he wanted us to go,
and where to take the attention to.
[ambient music continues]
[woman] At the moment not many people know about it,
and I guess if we can leverage public sentiment
and get people involved,
it's a pretty compelling story.
A young man on his honeymoon with his wife, new wife.
[Tim] Part of the challenge is Hakeem is a Muslim,
uh, he's a refugee,
and they're things that are potentially not very appealing
to the Australian community at the moment.
[Craig] Some components of his story and his life
meant that he was less likely to get the support
both of the Australian government
and I think probably of the Australian people.
Refugees in the last twenty years
have been incredibly demonised.
[spokesperson] If you travel by boat without a visa,
you will not make Australia home.
[Lou] People weren't taking this as seriously.
They were like, "Eh, who's this,
this Muslim, you know, refugee.
How is that our problem?"
[Craig] People are not going to come and get him
simply because he's a refugee.
People are not going to come and get him
just because he's a Bahraini who's been tortured.
People might come and help him and speak out for him,
and we might have a chance, a slim chance,
if we can activate sport.
[commentator] Finally, belatedly.
[Jo] Now, the football angle
was a really interesting one
because sport is like a religion in Australia.
[commentator] And his legend grows.
[Craig] He's going to need
football to come to his rescue.
[atmospheric music]
[vocalising]
[overlapping remarks]
[vocalising continues]
[indistinct remarks]
[sombre vocalising continues]
[engines rumbling]
[cameras snapping]
[Nadthasiri] On behalf of Hakeem's wife,
I am here to submit the letter
to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha
and ask him, please, to release Hakeem
on humanitarian grounds.
[sombre music continues]
[sombre vocalising continues]
[Brendan] Really scary things happening in Thailand.
Hakeem's wife keeps calling in tears
thinking he's been put on a plane to Bahrain.
The last dissident, Ali Haroon,
was tortured on the plane,
so this is very serious.
Minky.
[click]
[beep]
My reaction was, we have to mobilise
the Sport and Rights Alliance, we have to mobilise
international human rights community.
[traffic honking]
[Minky] Many of the Gulf countries,
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain,
they really want to be part of the world community,
but they don't want to reform their human rights practices.
In Bahrain, after 2011, after the Arab Spring,
it was very interesting how the government
attempted to rehabilitate its image through sports.
[commentator] It's the Bahrain Grand Prix,
and it's lights out, and away we go!
[Craig] Sport can be used to provide a cover
for some of the most egregious and threatening undertakings
in the history of modern society.
[thwack]
[atmospheric music]
[Hitler speaking in German]
[atmospheric music continues]
[indistinct chanting]
[Minky] Sportswashing lets some of the world's
worst human rights abusers rub elbows
with the international sports community
to make your country look like a member in good standing
of the international community.
[Craig] We actually had a situation where
mega sporting events,
such as the Olympic Games and the World Cup,
were being associated with human rights atrocities.
[atmospheric music continues]
[Sepp Blatter] The 2022 FIFA World Cup
is Qatar.
[crowd roaring]
[Brendan] Qatar was a tipping point in many ways.
There had to be the mass migration of workers
to undertake the scale of construction
which the bid required.
[female newscaster] These men have to work in temperatures
exceeding 50 degrees Celsius.
[male newscaster] Amnesty International
has described it as the World Cup of shame.
It's likened the conditions of the workers there
to slavery.
[Minky] So FIFA had no human rights policy
because they don't want to give up
their wealthy, abusive partners.
[reporter] For nearly a decade,
Russia and Qatar have been suspected
of buying votes
to win hosting rights for the 2018
and 2022 World Cups.
[newscaster] According to the Department of Justice here,
it was an example of a multi-billion-dollar business
operating not as a sports governing body,
but as a corrupt criminal enterprise.
[DOJ spokesperson] Now, the fourteen defendants
charged in the indictment we are unsealing today
include high-ranking officials of FIFA.
This really is the World Cup of fraud.
This event called the World Cup,
one of the great sports events of the world,
is now mired in corruption and human rights abuse.
[female newscaster] But one whistle-blower says
Qatar only did what was needed
when dealing with FIFA's culture of corruption.
[male reporter] More people will die
in the building of the football stadiums
for the World Cup in 2022
than players will play.
[contemplative music]
[Brendan] Six and a half thousand people
have lost their lives
in relation to construction efforts
around the World Cup.
And so FIFA knew it had to act
not really out of any sense of human rights concern,
but in order to preserve
the very essence of its business.
And so in 2016,
it adopted a human rights policy.
[Minky] Knowing that FIFA had passed these rules,
the first thing I wanted to do was talk with Hakeem
before they took away his cell phone.
Do you know FIFA has a human rights policy?
Rights on paper are meaningless
unless they're tested and implemented.
That was the question that Hakeem's case posed.
Could FIFA, with a new president,
actually do the right thing?
[applause]
[Brendan] It was imperative we saved Hakeem
for Hakeem the human being
and for the billions of people
whose human rights are affected
by the conduct of sport.
If we were going to prevent any of this
from happening again,
then we had to save Hakeem.
[triumphant music]
[applause]
[Craig] Hakeem being an Australian footballer,
the first steps that he needed from support from the sport
was the Australian Football Federation,
which is part of the Asian Football Confederation.
[Male host] It gives me great pleasure to welcome
the honourable President
of the Asian Football Confederation,
His Excellency, Sheikh Salman.
[applause]
Salman was running Asia,
and was the right-hand man
and had the ear of Infantino at FIFA.
[applause]
This guy was going to be expected
to actually step forward and help him.
[crowd roaring]
[commentator] The greatest football show
on the continent is underway.
[Craig] It was hugely fortuitous that
the Asian Cup was at that time
when this kid is sitting in jail.
"Dear Sir, I write to you as a member
of the Australian football family
regarding my football brother, Hakeem Al-Araibi.
As President of the AFC,
will you issue an immediate statement
on behalf of the AFC
calling for Hakeem Al-Araibi's release?"
[commentator] Big opportunity now, Al Hammadi!
[Craig] "The position of AFC President now carries
a non-negotiable obligation to do everything possible
to uphold the human rights of all in football."
[commentator] And a penalty's been given.
That quite new FIFA human rights policy
became the wonderful opportunity, in a way,
to obligate Infantino and FIFA and AFC to act.
And so, writing to Salman just puts him on notice
and it also puts all of the people
getting involved in the campaign on notice
that that's where we're headed.
This is about taking on the biggest powers
in world football.
[whistle blows]
[commentator] Full-time whistle sounds
in the opening game of the 2019 Asian Cup.
[indistinct commentary continues]
[protestors] Save Hakeem! Save Hakeem!
[Craig] Thank you, everyone, for coming today
for the solidarity protest in support of Hakeem Al-Araibi
and to call on the Thai government
to release Hakeem immediately,
particularly today, with a bilateral meeting
with our Foreign Minister, Marise Payne.
[Alexandra] We knew that Marise Payne
was going to visit her counterpart in Thailand.
This was one of the highest escalations,
diplomatically, that a country can take.
So the purpose of having that protest at the same time
was really to ramp up the pressure
on the Thai government
who were able to send Hakeem home at any moment.
We had really high hopes that Marise Payne's visit
would result in a positive outcome for Hakeem.
[Craig] We're also calling on the
AFC, Asian Football Confederation,
to publicly support Hakeem.
[commentator] So, away we go, with Bahrain all in red
as Bahrain face Thailand.
[Craig] We're also calling on the president of the AFC,
Sheikh Salman, to support Hakeem Al-Araibi,
to make a public statement.
The silence of over six weeks
of the Asian Football Confederation
is completely unacceptable.
[commentator] This could go.
Trying to tip it right, and he's scoring!
It's a super finish!
[Marise Payne] The Thai government
is most certainly aware
of the importance of this matter to Australia.
I do note that there are legal proceedings underway
in relation to Mr. Al-Araibi,
and Australia will continue to be in very close contact
with Thai authorities in relation to this.
[Alexandra] We received word that Marise Payne's visit
had not been a success,
and this was a significant blow
for the campaign.
[Elaine] We're certainly concerned
about why the Thai government is prioritising
its relationship with the Kingdom of Bahrain
over its relationship with Australia.
[Craig] So why is that happening?
What is the relationship between Thailand and Bahrain?
All of these questions, you know, are bubbling up,
and no one had the answers.
[tense music]
[tense music continues]
[Alexandra] Hakeem's wife consistently asked
to remain anonymous throughout the campaign
because she feared for her own life
and the lives and security of her family back in Bahrain,
but she was his greatest advocate.
[Craig] Hakeem's wife came to Sydney from Melbourne,
and seeing her there in person--
a devastated, traumatised young wife,
sitting down in front of me and asking me, basically,
to save her husband.
And I responded and said,
"You know, I'm doing everything I can."
She said, "Will you save my husband?"
And I was explaining,
you know, the steps I was taking,
and she just kind of stopped me and said,
"Will you save my husband?"
You know, and, um...
[tense music continues]
Yeah...
I just got the sense in that moment
that this was more important than anything.
Unless I really did something, you know, proper,
she was going to lose her husband.
You know?
[Alexandra] Craig's going to go to Bangkok,
and we obviously need to be quite mindful
of his security when he gets there.
Obviously, we're dealing with
a military dictatorship in Thailand,
there's quite strong laws about people speaking out,
particularly about the Royal Family
or the government there.
There may be a situation where
Craig has to get out of Thailand very quickly.
[tense music]
[Craig] "And so we'll prepare an escape plan.
We'll get you on a train.
We'll get you over one of the several borders.
We've done it before."
And that's when it started to get a bit worrying.
[soft, tense music playing]
The next day, my daughter actually came inside
and said,
"There's a car across the road,
and people are watching the house."
I went outside, approached the car...
[engine starting]
...and they went off.
I was planning to leave in three or four days.
Now, you know, we've got people
outside the house watching our family.
What happens if I go abroad
and then something happens here?
I was never quite sure if it was the right decision.
[tense music continues]
[indistinct chatter]
[tense music continues]
You went to see him yesterday?
[Evan] He's tired, he's deflated,
and he's ready to come home.
But, um, I think just...
I mean, try as much as possible
to, um, keep his spirits up
and just to show him that, you know,
that people are with him and supporting him.
[percussive music]
- [Craig] Nice to see you again. - [Nadthasiri] Nice to see you.
Yeah, this is about the third or fourth time...
[Nadthasiri] Craig contacted Evan and said
that he would like to talk to me.
I told him that, for Bahrain to submit
their official extradition request,
they have a sixty-day window.
The Thai government can communicate with Bahrain,
but I feel like Bahrain also don't want to lose face.
[Craig] Nat explained one really important thing:
Bahrain had not actually submitted
their extradition paperwork.
I thought the paperwork must be in
and we're waiting for the hearing.
She said, "No, it's not even in."
What happens if they don't put this paperwork in?
And she said, "Well then the whole thing goes away,
and he can go home."
Immediately, I started telling
all the social media campaigners,
"We need to pressure now the Bahrain government
not to put the paperwork in."
[tense music continues]
[tweets whistling]
And so I tweeted out about the fact that it wasn't in,
and that FIFA should be leaning on Salman immediately
back to his government to stop the paperwork.
[tense music continues]
[traffic honking]
The night before I went to the prison,
I just couldn't sleep.
You know, this meeting is
the most important meeting of my life.
[tense music]
[tense music continues]
[traffic rumbling]
[reporter] This is as close to the prison as we can get.
Hakeem Al-Araibi will be behind glass and bars.
Craig Foster will speak with him
via a prison telephone.
[light guitar music]
[motorcycle engine rumbling]
[light guitar music continues]
[chatter]
[light guitar music continues]
[supporters] Save Hakeem!
[light guitar music continues]
[motorcycle engine rumbling]
[bird chirping]
[reporter] How was Hakeem when you saw him?
[Craig] So, Hakeem is worried because the case
has been ongoing so long now that he...
he's worried, as he said, that Bahrain are winning.
And he said, "I need you guys to win."
He said, "They took my career and they broke my heart
because I love my wife and I love football."
And he said, "The two things I love the most,
they've taken from me."
And I told him that, um...
I told him that the players of the world
are fighting hard for him.
[inspiring music]
[commentator] Hakeem Al-Araibi
in everyone's thoughts in the football community.
[commentator] Good to see the "Save Hakeem" message
going around the A-League this weekend,
the football community rallying
to try and get him back home to Melbourne
and back to his wife.
[applause]
[Craig] If every effort is not made,
and if the life of Hakeem Al-Araibi,
in the eyes of the football governance officials
and the football community
is not equally as valuable
as both the lives of the officials
or of the billions of dollars of influence
that is brought to bear in this particular case,
then the soul of football is dead.
[players shouting]
[panting]
[players shouting]
[reporter] Bahrain has formally applied
to extradite Hakeem Al-Araibi,
the Melbourne-based refugee and soccer player
who's been held in a Thailand prison
for two months.
[Alexandra] It was completely devastating.
All that then needed to happen was
Thailand's Attorney General would accept the orders,
and Hakeem could be put on a plane the next day.
I actually thought immediately,
Bahrain and Thailand are working together here,
and they're responding to our campaign.
It was clear at that moment that they were winning,
and so I needed to respond and we needed to, basically,
in football parlance, we needed to counterattack.
[upbeat electronic music]
[Brendan] Yeah, look, Fozz gives us a buzz,
and he says, "Look, this kid--"
he always called Hakeem "this kid,"
I said he's a man but anyway--
"he's in serious danger.
We need to elevate this,
otherwise we're going to have a tragedy on our hands."
[upbeat electronic music continues]
[Craig] I drafted a tweet.
"I'm going to turn up, basically, at your office,
and I'm inviting all of the world's media,
and you better get a meeting to work."
[upbeat electronic music continues]
And I remember, before I send it,
just thinking to myself, "God, that's pretty crazy."
You know?
[upbeat electronic music continues]
Many people go to FIFA House,
and what's on offer is so seductive
that they end up not really doing their job.
And I said to Schwabe,
"This organisation and that building
is built by us.
It's built on Pelé.
It's built on George Best.
It's built on Eusébio.
It's built on Sam Kerr."
I said to him, "We own that building."
We're seeing Fatma Samoura at midday, at twelve o'clock.
- And your name? - Craig Foster.
FIFA's human rights policy was very much at the centre
of this whole issue.
[man] That's, ah...
It meant that they had to advance
the cause of human rights
and use all available leverage that they had.
Well, when it comes to FIFA, that's massive.
And so there was a number of steps
that we wanted to see FIFA take.
[Fatma laughs]
Very nice. My first time here, actually.
- Really? - Yes.
- The home of FIFA? - You've never invited me.
Oh, really? Somebody has to be blamed.
- Right. Exactly right. - [laughter]
[Craig] He knows the games they play,
he knows the regime very well, obviously,
having been tortured previously...
And so we then started the dance
that happens in these meetings.
Fatma and her staff trying to push back
on the fact that they're doing enough,
and me saying to Fatma, "Well, you're not, actually."
Uh, it's clear that, ah, the situation's escalated
since the last statement.
So, shall we talk freely here now, or you want to wait...
[Fatma] No, I think that they can...
[man] Is it okay for you, gentlemen?
[Craig] My requests of Fatma and of FIFA, then,
were that Infantino got involved immediately,
that he get Salman on the line,
that he let the Bahraini government know
that they need to pull the extradition order,
and that we needed to work on a joint press release
that would be issued immediately
calling on Bahrain to act.
Unless they were prepared to issue that,
then I would walk outside and tell the world's media
that they were leaving this kid to die.
[cameras clicking]
[soft music]
We're delighted to say that FIFA agreed
that this has now become an emergency situation
requiring an escalation
from all stakeholders
to provide full protection for Hakeem.
We also agreed that Fatma and FIFA
are going to escalate the issue
to the highest level of both countries.
[inspiring music]
[Lou] Having people like Giorgio Chiellini,
a World Cup winner,
tweeting, "Release Hakeem."
That's where this got to.
[crowd cheering]
[inspiring music continues]
[Craig] Players around the world just started saying,
"Okay, we-- this is just not right."
[inspiring music continues]
[reporter] Protest rallies in Sydney and Melbourne today
have demanded the immediate release
of Hakeem Al-Araibi from a Thai prison.
[Craig] All right, thank you, everyone, for coming.
The feeling of this country is escalating very quickly,
and Thailand should know that there are repercussions
to taking any decision that's contrary to international law.
[Elaine] Bahrain is trying to send a very strong message
that you may think that you're free in Australia
to speak your mind and to say what you think,
but we will track you down,
we will hunt you, and we will bring you back.
[reporter] Today, the unions threw their support
behind Hakeem,
and wouldn't rule out travel bans to Thailand
if he isn't released.
[Craig] The whole movement in Australia
had just taken on a life of its own.
[Philip Dalidakis] I sadly rise today to talk about
the incarceration of Hakeem Al-Araibi.
I say to the Thai Prime Minister,
Maintain relations with Australia.
Return Hakeem to Victoria now.
Everybody was tweeting about it.
Clearly, it was trending.
People from all over the world
were tweeting on that hashtag.
[inspiring music continues]
[Craig] There was actually just
tens and hundreds of thousands of people
who now had decided this was wrong,
and it was clear that
we had got in the ascendancy again.
[Fatima] At that time, our hopes were so high.
[Alexandra] This campaign was a game of chess,
and every time we attacked and made a move,
there would be a counterattack.
[reporter] Let's see what's making news this Friday,
the first of February.
And refugee footballer Hakeem Al-Araibi
will reportedly face court on Monday
after Bahrain's extradition request
was lodged by Thai prosecutors.
Whilst we'd made good steps,
we clearly were being unsuccessful.
You know, they're still moving ahead.
And I was elated after the FIFA meeting.
A couple of days earlier, we got the press release.
At least they've-- they've publicly called out Bahrain.
But it clearly wasn't enough yet.
In less than forty-eight hours, this kid is in court.
[Fatima] We believed that Hakeem was
going to be extradited to Bahrain,
and I remember telling his wife,
"God won't let you down.
Just pray and He will hear you."
[electric guitar music]
[metal clanking]
[electric guitar music continues]
[panting]
[electric guitar music continues]
[Hakeem] I went to the court.
They cut my hair,
they put me on the bus,
and some of the police,
he held a gun,
he asked me to go out from the bus,
the last one.
I was surprised so many people,
many flash is coming at me.
I was worried for my family.
What are they going to do? What are they thinking?
[cameras clicking]
[cameras snapping]
[indistinct shouting]
[Craig] Your wife sends her love, Hakeem.
All of Australia is with you. Be strong, buddy!
Stay strong, Hakeem. We're with you.
[Hakeem] I saw Craig, and he said,
"Hakeem, be strong, be strong."
I was happy to see him there.
[gate closes]
[panting]
[gavel raps]
[heart beating]
[panting]
[tense music]
[heart beating]
[tense music continues]
Please, save me. Please.
[tense music continues]
[door clanging]
[tense music continues]
[Sara] Hakeem looked awful.
Yeah, it was quite devastating to see him that way.
[Phil] We were shocked.
We were absolutely shocked that he was in shackles.
[Craig] Like the worst criminal.
What's this kid done?
Spoken truth to power.
[grim music]
[Allan McKinnon] That's a question
for Thailand to consider,
the ramification of its actions
for its relationships
with other bodies and other governments.
There was fifteen countries here today
to observe these proceedings.
They're also asking the same thing.
[text clicking]
[Phil] The fact that Thailand was just pushing ahead
regardless of the arguments made against this extradition,
why would they do such a thing?
You know, what is this... What is this all about?
[intense music]
[Craig] I can tell you now,
there's some aspects of this entire affair
which are extremely concerning,
which will explain Thailand's actions,
but unfortunately, they're just too sensitive
to talk about publicly.
[intense music continues]
[Evan] In Thailand when you can't explain things,
when you can't explain why the government's
going in a certain direction,
then you know the answer.
[crowd sounds]
Things are tied up at that royal level
and there's influence there and directives coming down saying,
"This is what you're going to do
and this is how things are going to proceed."
[parade music]
[Craig] So what is the relationship between
the two Royal Families?
I was constantly asking for information in that regard,
and that wasn't easy to come by
because they have laws in Thailand
where people are imprisoned
if they speak in a negative way
about the Royal Family.
[crowd cheering]
[soft music]
[crowd cheering]
Eventually, I found a few people
who explained to me
the depth of the relationship between the two.
[soft music continues]
The relationship between them is very deep and historic.
Bahrain had been Thailand's closest trade partner
in the Middle East for decades.
We discovered that the Thai King
had recently negotiated the sale of a hotel
to the Bahrain Royal Family
that had made him 1.6 billion dollars.
[helicopter blades whirring]
And, of course, Salman is a senior member
of the Bahrain Royal Family.
So we now knew this was a matter
of two Royal Families trading the life of Hakeem.
[soft music continues]
[Lou] Is he actually saveable?
Is this situation saveable?
[Evan] That's it, I think.
I honestly, at that point in time, thought--
My kind of hope had, you know, been dashed at that point.
[soft music continues]
[energetic music]
[traffic humming]
[energetic music continues]
[female newscaster] Barefoot in Thailand
and locked up in chains,
a nightmare far from what Hakeem Al-Araibi imagined
when he flew off on his honeymoon.
[female newscaster 1] The life of a refugee footballer
is hanging in the balance.
[female newscaster 2] The twenty-five-year-old
was brought before the Bangkok court
shackled in chains.
[male newscaster 1] Australia's Prime Minister,
soccer governing bodies, and human rights activists
are urging Thailand to set him free.
[male newscaster 2] We all saw those
dramatic pictures of him
appearing at a courtroom in Bangkok
and he was barefooted.
- [newscaster 4] In shackles... - [newscaster 5] Shackles...
[newscaster 6] Shackled in chains.
Now, that image shocked the world.
[Craig] If we thought the campaign was big at that point,
the shackles, it just blew it up.
[reporting in French]
[reporting in Thai]
[reporter] Human rights groups are saying there simply isn't
a legal basis for holding him here.
[Duncan] That's when the public turned.
[Jo] The Thais. That's when the Thais turned.
They didn't like the brutality of their country
being displayed like that.
[newscaster] Some of his supporters have even said
that Thailand should be barred
from staging international matches
if he is sent back to Bahrain.
Once we'd found out
that the Royal Family of Thailand were involved,
we knew that to shift the narrative,
we needed every day Thai people to be speaking out
and putting pressure on their politicians,
and only that was going to shift the King.
[energetic music]
[Craig] We actually started to see protests
in the coming days from Thai clubs themselves,
which was incredibly brave,
given that they're basically protesting against the King.
[Sayed] Football, the beautiful game,
showed how beautiful it can be when they stood up for him.
[energetic music continues]
The "SaveHakeem" hashtag,
this is now the most trending hashtag
in the whole of Thailand.
[Phil] My view is that the Thai government
is only now starting to see
the global opposition to this move.
[typing on cell phone]
[Craig] And the outrage just swamped the Thai government.
[energetic music continues]
The Thai Prime Minister actually called for calm
they were under so much pressure.
Whoever was religious was praying.
Others were just pleading
because that was the moment.
[applause]
The game had swung our way again,
but it meant the Thai King was backed into a corner,
and we had no idea how he'd react.
[sombre music]
[sombre music continues]
[Evan] What does that mean?
Why would he be going to Bahrain at this time?
[Jo] They're going to sneak Hakeem
out of the country.
They've realised that the public pressure
is so great, they can't do this legitimately.
They're actually just going to put a bag over his head,
they're going to take him to the airport
and they're going to shove him on a flight
because once he's back in Bahrain,
nobody can do anything.
[Duncan] We basically thought it was all over.
[grim music]
[seagulls calling]
[typing]
[indistinct shouting]
[grim music continues]
[Hakeem's wife laughing]
[grim music continues]
[Craig] The thing that really got me about this situation
was that it was football that had done this to Hakeem.
[crowd sounds]
It was the people at the very highest levels of the game
that had failed him,
who didn't seem to understand a thing
about what makes football truly beautiful.
[crowd cheering]
[energetic music]
If we stop buying the shirts,
if we stop buying the tickets,
if we refuse to support teams and clubs and competitions
that are abusing human rights,
it all stops.
It all comes back to what is most important.
That is the game, the players, and the fans.
[reporter speaking in Arabic]
But all I could do in that moment was watch
as these people sat around deciding what to do
with the life of a twenty-five-year-old man.
[reporter speaking in Arabic]
[soft, grim music]
[clanking thud]
[grim music continues]
[indistinct call-and-response]
[grim music continues]
[gate whirring]
[grim music continues]
[gate whirring]
[gate thuds closed]
[heavy breathing]
[soft music]
[indistinct chatter]
[heavy breathing continues]
[energetic music builds]
[heavy breathing]
[energetic music continues to build]
[cheering, applause]
[cheering]
[energetic music continues]
[applause, cheering]
[applause, cheering continue]
And I guess I want to give thanks to Australia
and it's amazing to see all the people here.
And I just want to thank this man.
He's fought too much for my case.
And I want to thank you very much.
And I love Australia.
- Thank you very much. - Welcome home, Hakeem!
[cheering]
[sentimental music]
[Craig] A young Australian...
[music continues]
Um... sorry.
[spectator] Good on you, Fozzy!
A young Australian reunited with his wife.
That's the most important thing here.
[female newscaster] Refugee footballer Hakeem Al-Araibi
is back in Australia a free man.
Late yesterday, a Thai court announced an extradition order
lodged by Bahrain had been dropped.
[male newscaster] We now know the pressure brought by
the Save Hakeem campaign
caused a flurry of diplomatic activity.
After Thailand's foreign minister
made a trip to Bahrain,
Thailand's government announced
the extradition request had been dropped.
[crowd cheering]
[rhythmic drumming]
[heavy breathing]
[soft music]
I felt hope.
[soft music continues]
[chuckles]
[indistinct chatter]
[cameras clicking]
[indistinct chatter]
[cheering, applause]
[soft, bright music]
[soft, bright music continues]
I am Hakeem Al-Araibi.
I am a footballer.
I am a torture survivor.
And I am a human rights defender.
[soft music]
[typing]
[soft music continues]
[soft, solemn music]
[energetic music]