The victims of the Al-Hamdeen organization.. This is how Qatar is designed for a “big prison”
Iron bars surrounded by black walls.. This is what tens of Qataris and foreigners whom the Qatari regime has thrown into detention without charge or trial are seeing daily. They are being subjected to all kinds of torture, whether it be physical or moral torture. Qatari security officers intentionally ill-treated them in implementation of high orders. Some of them still resist, and some preferred to surrender and die. Last year witnessed an increase in the number of deaths, which was initially the result of systematic torture and continuous violations. The spread of the coronavirus pandemic inside most Qatari prisons made matters worse, threatening the lives of all detainees, and prompting them to seek their families help if they manage to talk to them for several minutes.
Classification of torture in prisons in Qatar
According to leaked testimonies, Qatari prisons are subjected to a strict separation between citizens, expatriates and foreigners. Methods of torture vary according to the nationality of the prisoner and the nature of the relations between his country and Doha.
If a country with tense relations with Qatar, the prisoner is thrown into the worst wards, among the red-listed prisoners, that is, the most dangerous around them, and is subjected there to the most severe kind of torture, which amounts to rape and murder.
If he comes from a country with close relations with Doha, the matter is different and remains linked to the nature of the “crime” committed, as confirmed, for example, by the testimony of the French contractor Jean-Pierre Marongi, who plotted a plot and was thrown in prison.
Marongi, despite the psychological pressure he was subjected to, but his situation in prison made sense considering the rest of the different nationalities by testifying in his book published in the form of memoirs that documented his diary in the Central Prison in Doha.
Forcing prisoners to confess to crimes they did not commit
Human rights groups around the world are lobbying Doha and its regime to increase torture against prisoners, force the Qatari regime to extract confessions from victims and force them to sign off on the veracity of crimes they have never heard of.
“In May 2019, a UN expert, during a UN Committee against Torture discussion of its periodic report on Qatar, found that there was no explicit provision in Qatari law that would prohibit torture, and that Doha was using it as a pretext to use torture, including flogging as corporal punishment, to even detain minors”.
Qatar uses all kinds of torture, including sleep deprivation for days on end, burning sensitive areas and cutting off the tongue or limbs before extracting confessions of crimes they had never heard of.
Amnesty International has criticized the Qatari judicial system after upholding jail sentences against three Filipinos accused of spying; According to the organization, Ronaldo Lopez Ulep was subjected to physical and psychological torture and ill-treatment while being held in a Qatari state security prison.
Australian prisoner Joseph Sarlak’s plight
Crossing the walls of Tamim prisons to denounce a regime that flagrantly violates human rights and fabricates charges against anyone who refuses to submit to blackmail and repression.
Sarlak was jailed in Doha on the same accusation that the French contractor and most foreigners were jailed for, issuing uncredited checks after the regime dumped their assets.
The Australian prisoner is over 70 years old, a businessman and victim of a Qatari sheik; He was accused of signing checks without credit, which his lawyer, Radha Sterling, said he was not responsible for, despite being a company partner, because of Qatari laws requiring a local sponsor for foreigners working in Doha, and therefore had no control over his daily business.
Systematic repression and crimes of the withdrawal of nationalities from the Al-Ghufran tribe
Qataris have not given themselves up to the brutality of the Qatari regime. Persecution and violations affect anyone who disagrees with the regime or opposes it, even if it is impossible, and the members of the Al-Ghufran tribe in Qatar have not been spared from the crimes of the regime. Some were thrown into prison while others had their nationalities withdrawn and left to live an unprecedented human tragedy under a state that does not pay any attention to the international community and is proud of its black human rights record.
International reports have described the violations suffered by the Al-Ghufran tribe, and denounced the insistence of the Tamim regime, which grants Qatari nationality to Turks, on using the weapon of revocation of nationality against its opponents, and even expelling them outside the country and imprisoning them for allegedly inciting tribal strife.
The Al-Ghafran tribe, which belongs to the Al-Murra Tribe, has been under persecution since 1996 when Hamad bin Khalifa turned against his father, and a number of tribesmen then supported a return to power. Their members were subject to withdrawals of nationalities in 2004, which was repeated in 2018 when the nationalities of dozens of tribesmen, including tribal sheikh Talib bin Lahoum, were revoked.
