[7] Al-Raisi was appointed General Inspector of the interior ministry in 2015[8] and played a key role in the arrest of Matthew Hedges, a British academic accused of espionage by the UAE regime, in 2018.

[8] Human rights organisations say that Raisi oversees a "notoriously abusive" state security apparatus, which has misused the red notice system of Interpol.

[21][22] Unusual for a normally opaque process,[23] the UAE was promoting Al-Raisi by arranging his trips to the Interpol member countries to gain support, while he was viewed as an “international pariah”.

[23] Rodney Dixon, the lawyer of Matthew Hedges and Ali Ahmad, raised a complaint with the Swedish police to arrest al-Raisi upon his arrival to the country, as part of his campaign tour before the vote.

[25] Hedges and Ahmad raised a similar request with the Norwegian police authorities asking them for help and to use the opportunity of al-Raisi’s visit to arrest him, if an investigation is opened.

[33] The United Arab Emirates are the second-largest contributor to Interpol's budget, which has led to allegations that the UAE bought the outcome of the election.

[18][34] Writing for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Ulrich Schmid (journalist) [de] called his election a reason for authoritarian countries to celebrate, as it would further erode the standing of human rights in international organisations.

Director of Advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei said violating the decision of ECHR indicates how "red lines will be crossed" under al-Raisi's leadership.

He was under torture allegations, which William Bourdon said were adequate to lift his “diplomatic immunity”, adding that the French prosecutors should have ordered his immediate arrest.