The wife of detained Bahraini footballer Hakeem Al-Araibi has issued a plea for world leaders to pressure the Thai government for his release.
Al-Araibi, 25-year-old, holds refugee status in Australia but is being held in a Bangkok prison on an Interpol warrant put out by Bahrain.
Bahrain has said the conviction was fair and that extradition proceedings are now "in process".
But the footballer's wife told the BBC extradition would place him in danger.
"I'm calling on every country to help Hakeem because I know if he gets taken back he will be tortured, and he will be killed," she said.
The Australia-based 24-year-old, who has asked not to be named, said she had written a personal plea to Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.
"His future lies in your hands. Please help my husband come home," she says in the letter to Mr Prayuth, which her lawyer said was handed to the government on Wednesday.
The Australian government, Fifa and the International Olympic Committee are among those who have lobbied Thailand to release Al-Araibi.
Al-Araibi fled to Australia in 2014 and was granted political asylum there in 2017. He now plays for club Pascoe Vale in Melbourne.
In 2014, he was sentenced in absentia in Bahrain to 10 years in prison for vandalising a police station.
Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 09:55