When asked by an audience member during a panel in Sydney what he wanted to do with his freedom, Bahraini refugee and former Thai prisoner Hakeem Al-Arabi had a simple answer: play football.

Sitting next to Socceroos great Craig Foster, it seemed a fitting answer. 

A week after playing his first game back with Pascoe Vale FC, Al-Araibi appeared in Sydney as part of a talk on the state of human rights in Bahrain at the University of Technology.

“At the moment, I just want to focus on football,” he said, to laughter from the crowd.

“I would like to help refugees … but now all the people want to watch me on the grounds.”

Al-Araibi was propelled into the international spotlight after he was arrested in Bangkok on an invalid Interpol red notice, issued by his home country Bahrain – which the footballer had fled fearing political persecution, claiming he had been tortured after speaking out against the government.

What followed was a harrowing two-month ordeal, as the football world, human rights advocates and Australian politicians lobbied for his release and Bahrain fought for his extradition. He was returned to Australia on February 12, after Bahrain suddenly dropped his case in the Thai courts.

Discussing the alleged torture at the hands of the Bahraini government, the Melbourne resident said his love for the game was used against him by his captors.

“I was arrested on my birthday in 2012 and when they took me to the police station they started torturing me for five hours,” he said.

“The torture was all in my legs, they used to tell me that I was not going to play again. They beat my legs very hard, I couldn’t walk from the pain.”

Earlier this month, Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne personally presented Al-Araibi with his Australian citizenship. 

“I’m an Aussie now,” he told reporters at the ceremony. “I feel safe.”

Weeks earlier, shortly after his return to Australia, Al-Araibi had met with Prime Minister Scott Morrison at Parliament House, who assured him he would soon be made a citizen.

Before his arrest, Al-Araibi had lived in Australia for five years and was granted refugee status after a three-year process. 

“You are the reason for the return to my lovely wife and to my life,” Al-Arabi told his fellow panellists, which included Foster, Human Rights advocates Fatima Yazbeh, Tim O’Connor and Elaine Pearson, football journalist Bonita Mersiades, CEO of Professional Footballers’ Association John Didulica and Chair of Association of Australian Football Clubs Rabieh Krayen.

“It was the hardest day of my life in Thailand. Every day I cried until I returned to my wife and Australia.”

As part of the panel, Al-Araibi was presented with a Liverpool FC jersey signed by star footballer Robbie Fowler.