Nairobi — 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.

Mushir Salem Jawher

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

The Gulf Daily News (GDN) reported yesterday on its website that the Israel Athletic Association chairman, Shlomo Ben-Gal, announced on Sunday that he would send a letter to the IAAF requesting the federation to support Mucheru, who is in hiding in Kenya for fear of being arrested by immigration officials for using a Kenyan passport to travel to Israel.

Questions

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."

The newspaper, quoted 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.

"Going to a country we are boycotting is completely forbidden," he said.

Athletics Kenya public relations officer, Peter Angwenyi, urged the 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.

Bahrain does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

Mucheru is 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.

He was born in Nyandarua in 1978 but moved to Tigoni, Limuru, a few years ago.

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.

Mucheru is the second athlete to find himself in trouble with the immigration department. John Yego was last year arrested at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for allegedly falsifying information on his age in the Kenyan passport after the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) requested sports minister Maina Kamanda to assist in the matter.

World 3000 metres steeplechase record holder, Saif Saaeed Shaheen, spent a night in the cells at the airport when immigration officials noticed he had provided false information in his entry visa, an omission he said was committed by an official of Qatar athletics .

Two other athletes - Thomas Longosiwa and Emmanuel Chamer - also landed into problems. Longosiwa was taken to court but is out on bail while Chamer earned a reprieve after Kamanda declared an amnesty.

Mucheru was quoted by the Jerusalem Post having said he was proud to have raced in Israel.

"This is outside the rules and he went to Israel without telling anyone," Mohammed Abdul Jalal, the head of the Bahrain Athletics Association, told Reuters.

The Bahrain Athletic Association said it had received news that a Bahraini national had competed in Israel with "shock and regret".

"A committee of sport and government authorities decided to strike Jawher's name off the sport union records and revoke his Bahraini nationality," the statement said.