A French report reveals new details on the reason behind the dismissal of the Qatari Public Prosecutor
A report published by the French magazine “Le Point” on Friday raised the issue of the dismissal of the Qatari Prosecutor General Ali bin Fetais Al Marri after two decades in office, and asked about the reasons behind his dismissal and the dismissal of a number of officials before him as the country was preparing to host the World Cup.
The French magazine reported: “Why are these huge dismissals in one month for the Minister of Finance and then the Public Prosecutor ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar?”.
The report added: “Did the prince want to get rid of the characters that would dominate this great sporting event?” especially as Ali bin Fetais al-Marri risked continuing to feed international headlines.”
The report revealed that on July 6, French President Emmanuel Macron received a long letter signed by Sheikh Ahmed bin Khaled bin Mohammed bin Ali bin Qassim bin Mohammed Al-Thani, a member of the Qatari ruling family linked to the Al-Thani dynasty, and accused, by name, the former Attorney General of the State of Qatar, and many of his partners, of “embezzling the wealth of the State of Qatar” to their own interests” and “using France as a haven to commit criminal acts in the eyes of international justice.”
He pointed out that Ali bin Fetais Al Marri, born in 1965 in Doha, has been the Attorney General of the State of Qatar since 2002 and is still the Special Representative of the United Nations on the issue of “illicit gains” and the President of the International Association against Corruption, adding that Francophonie is one of the main mediators between Paris and Doha and has been head of the Center for the Rule of Law and the Fight against Corruption in Geneva since 2017, a structure that does not appear to have any real activity.
According to the report, the letter asks the French President to investigate all investments and acquisitions in France that benefit officials in Qatar and their relatives, adding that these investments are owned by companies registered in Malta and Luxembourg and in the British Virgin Islands that are exempt from taxes. The former Attorney General of the State of Qatar is the subject of a complaint to the United Nations, which was sent to its Secretary General Antonio Guterres, citing “acts of violation of the Human Rights Council in the State of Qatar”, along with other complaints before the Supreme Court of the State of New York, about “deliberate interference and other acts of damage that caused significant economic damage to the prosecutor Sheikh Al-Thani” and “arbitrary and unlawful legal proceedings” with money laundering charges.
The report warned that “the decision of the Attorney General of the State of Qatar was preceded on 6 May 2021 by the arrest of Minister of Finance Ali Sharif Al Emadi, who has been in this position since 2013, and was arrested by order of Prince bin Hamad Al Thani after a file presented by the Attorney General Ali bin Fetais Al Marri, which is a strange arrest for a minister who belongs to one of the country’s large families.”
In the letter to Emmanuel Macron, Sheikh Al-Thani referred to reports published in ”Le Point” in February 2018 and March 2019 on the legacy of the Prosecutor-General, who does not belong to a wealthy Qatari family but who in 2013 managed to get a three-story palace within a stone’s range of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris for 9.6 million euros.
