Covering events from January - December 2002
STATE OF QATAR
Head of state: al-Shaikh Hamad Ibn Khalifa Al-Thani
Head of government: al-Shaikh Abdullah Ibn Khalifa Al-Thani
Death penalty: retentionist
International Criminal Court: not signed
The Emir, al-Shaikh Hamad Ibn Khalifa Al-Thani, decreed the establishment of a governmental human rights commission and announced future constitutional changes with potential positive effects on human rights. However, past patterns of human rights violations remained unchanged and were sustained by global and regional security policies in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the USA. One possible prisoner of conscience was sentenced to death, while another held from 2001 was released. The status of 39 political prisoners, including possible prisoners of conscience, held from previous years remained unchanged. Allegations of ill-treatment were reported and new information on past torture came to light.
Background
In January Qatar reported to the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee measures it had taken to "combat terrorism". One of the measures pointed out in the report was that the "authorities are currently studying a number of bilateral draft agreements with certain states relating to cooperation in the field of extradition and the exchange of information relating to criminal offenders..." The US State Department report, Patterns of Global Terrorism, released in May, stated that Qatar had worked closely with the US authorities to detain and investigate "terrorist suspects". The government made no reference to human rights protection in its report to the Security Council nor did it reveal the identity of anyone it had assisted the US authorities to arrest or what procedures were followed in such cases. There were concerns that human rights standards had been sidelined.
Najib al-Nu'aimi, a lawyer and former Minister of Justice, made plans to set up a lawyers' committee to defend the right to seek justice for the detainees in the US detention centre at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He said he had obtained the power of attorney from some of the families of the detainees in different countries in the Gulf, and had sought access to detainees, but the US authorities did not grant him a visa. The detainees included Jar Allah al-Murri, a Qatari national, and Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese employee of the Qatar-based al-Jazeera television station and a resident of Qatar.
AI received a commentary from the government on concerns expressed in the Amnesty International Report 2002. The commentary pointed out changes made by the authorities in the light of some of AI's concerns, but either rejected other concerns as "inaccurate" or defended its actions on legal grounds which AI considered inconsistent with international human rights standards.
Possible prisoners of conscience
One possible prisoner of conscience was sentenced to death, while another, Lu'ay Muhammad Abdullah, a US national of Palestinian origin who was serving two years' imprisonment, was released in January (see below).
- Firas Nassuh Salim Al-Majali, a 29-year-old Jordanian journalist who worked for Qatari national television, was sentenced to death in October by the Grand Criminal Court in Doha. He was convicted after what was reported as a grossly unfair trial of spying for Jordanian intelligence (see below). It appeared that the defendant was a victim of deteriorating political relations between Jordan and Qatar over a number of issues, including a program critical of the Jordanian royal family and the country's Middle East policy, which was broadcast by al-Jazeera television in August. The defendant lodged an appeal which remained pending at the end of the year.
- Thirty-nine political prisoners, including possible prisoners of conscience, sentenced in previous years after grossly unfair trials in connection with a coup attempt in 1996, remained held. They included 19 whose sentences of life imprisonment were changed to capital punishment by the Appeal Court in May 2001. The other 20 were serving life imprisonment.
Allegations of ill-treatment were reported and new information on torture came to light. Firas Al-Majali (see above) was reportedly subjected to lengthy solitary confinement and duress during his pre-trial detention in order to force him to confess. No investigation of torture allegations made in 2001 was known to have taken place. Other people alleging that they had been tortured included Lu'ay Abdullah, a possible prisoner of conscience, who was released in January. He alleged that he had been beaten and sustained injuries to his head.
Death penalty
At least 20 people were known to be under sentence of death, but the true figure may have been higher. No executions were reported in 2002.
Disclaimer: © Copyright Amnesty International
This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.