Abdul Rahman Yusuf

Abdul Rahman Yusuf (Arabic: عبد الرحمن يوسف; born September 18, 1970), also known as Abdul Rahman Al-Qaradawi, is an Egyptian poet, using his poetry to address political and social issues of Arab society as well as aesthetics of Arabic poetry.

Yusuf, who holds Turkish citizenship, was convicted in absentia in a sham trial by an Egyptian military court on charges of "opposing the state" in 2017. The trial came after social media posts critical of the El-Sisi dictatorship and his role in backing the advocacy group Egyptian Movement for Change.

Following the 2024 fall of the Assad regime in Syria, Yusuf celebrated the collapse and visited the country and the Umayyad Mosque. Shortly, he was arrested in Lebanon upon entering through the Masnaa crossing. Lebanese courts issued a ruling in January 2025 to extradite Yusuf to the United Arab Emirates, rejecting calls from Amnesty International and other human rights organizations and putting Yusuf at risk of torture.

Prior to his arrest by Lebanese authorities, Yusuf lived in Turkey with his family. Yusuf is a critic of the UAE, the Sisi regime in Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

Yusuf supports Hamas military wing: in a video he posted online, he said he believed 7 October, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, was a 'realistic scenario for the process of liberating Palestine'; before his arrest he'd posted an elegy praising Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader killed in October 2024 by Israeli forces.

On 8 January 2025, Lebanon extradited Yusuf to the UAE.

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