IAAF urged to sort out nationality dispute of former Kenyan runner

Israel has requested the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to help sort out the nationality dispute of Mushir Salem Jawher, formerly known as Leonard Mucheru, Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation reported Wednesday.

Jawher or Mucheru, a Kenyan who changed his nationality to Bahrain, was stripped of his Bahrain citizenship last week after competing in a marathon race in Israel.

Bahrain does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

Reports said that the Israel Athletic Association Chairman Shlomo Ben-Gal has announced that he would send a letter to the IAAF requesting the federation to support Mucheru, who is now in hiding in Kenya for fear of being arrested by Kenyan immigration officials for using a Kenyan passport to travel to Israel.

Officials from the IAAF confirmed they were aware of Mucheru's case.

"We are concerned about the said athlete," said IAAF spokesman Nick Davies from Monaco. "The question we need answers to now is: What country does he belong to now? Now that he's no longer a Bahraini, does it mean he is Kenyan again? It is to my understanding that he had to denounce his previous citizenship."

A Bahraini source saying: "It was a surprise for us in Bahrain how he suddenly appeared in Israel and began to tell media there how he was proud to be the first Arab to have taken part in a sporting event there. All we knew was that he was in Kenya to spend the holidays with his family and friends."

"He was expected to come back and start preparing for another major sporting event in Japan later this year. He is no longer Bahraini, he has no right to be here," he said.

Bahrain Athletics Association (BAA) president Mohammed Jalal had said that Mucheru went to Israel without informing anyone in Bahrain.

Athletics Kenya public relations officer, Peter Angwenyi, urged the Kenyan government to give Mucheru special dispensation as a patriotic son who first did duty for the country before moving to Bahrain to secure his future.

"He should be treated with compassion instead of being hunted like a fugitive," said Angwenyi.

Mucheru pleaded ignorance. He said he still maintained his roots in Kenya, where he lives with his family and has invested heavily.

Mucheru, then running for Kenya, finished fifth at the short course race of the 2000 IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

He is now technically stateless and has gone into hiding, fearing arrest by the immigration officials. He changed his nationality in 2003.

"I do not know much about world politics as my main preoccupation is running," said Mucheru in a telephone conversation.

Mucheru said he was never asked to surrender his Kenyan passport, which he uses frequently between competition and training venues in Kenya and Europe. He said Kenyan immigration officials have never questioned him. He used the same document to travel to Israel last week before he was exposed in an article by the Jerusalem Post.

Source: Xinhua