Rare insight into life inside Qatar’s jail
Source:http://dohanews.co/post/27830741464/prison-chief-gives-rare-insight-into...
An interview published in today’s Gulf Times with the director of Qatar’s Penal and Reformatory Institutions Department gives an unusual amount of information about the lives of prisoners in Qatar.
Colonel Mohamed Saud al-Utaibi says that each inmate has the right to make two phone calls a month, and non-Qataris are also allowed to receive occasional phone calls from their relatives.
He also says that the prison is about to start granting access to Skype, Twitter and Yahoo Messenger to help inmates keep in touch with their families.
“This would make things easy, especially for foreign inmates, and ease the burden of cost on their relatives. This idea was highly received by the inmates and they are eagerly waiting for its launch. However, this would not in anyway be an alternative for the usual visits they are entitled to,” he said.
He goes on to explain that prisoners are kept occupied with activities like crafts, gardening and sport.
Female prisoners - of whom there are only 13 in Qatar - are given “appropriate” crafts to do, he says, like dress making and drawing.
He also describes the prison’s approach to Ramadan, providing a special Iftar meal for prisoners each evening, which Muslims and non-Muslims share together. Non-Muslims are not expected to fast during the day, but they must eat out of sight of Muslim inmates.
Thoughts?
who spent 39 years in Qatar without committing any kind of crime and never violated the rules in Qatar. I know him personally and I can say that he is one of the wonderful and honest people I ever met. This man was running a small humble business and he has one of his outlets in a souq in Doha. Everything was legal and he used to pay his the rental fees for the management of souq until the time when the government bought the souq and decided to demolish it and build another one.
During that time the old management has disappeared and his rental contract expired, so he kept following up for almost 10 months with the security guard asking him where the management is and he never got a straight and clear answer, so he decided to run his outlet until the new management appear and inform him what he has to do. The same thing happened with the other outlet owners.
After almost a year when they requested all outlets to close and move their items out of the building, a Qatari young man (22-26 years old) called him and asked him to pass by their office. Once he arrived there, the Qatari man asked him to pay the rent of the past 12 months.
This was their conversation:
The businessman: That is fine, but my rental contract has expired already, so what should I do?
The Qatari answered: Bring any kind of contract and just change the date. As simple as that. If you do so, we will give you a new site in the new building.
So the businessman changed the date of the old contract and brought it to the Qatari man. This was the conversation between them:
The Qatari man: ok, so 1500 QR multiplied by 12 months is 18.000 QR, where is it?
The businessman: I will issue a cheque for you and you can withdraw it right now. I will stay here with you and you can send anyone to withdraw it if you do not trust me.
The Qatari man: Nope! You bring it all cash!
So the man went home and explained to his wife what happened, and they doubted on the Qatari man's intention. He most probably wants to get the 18.000 QR for himself, hence he does not want a cheque and the rental contract belongs to the old management who does not exist anymore.
The businessman went to one of the high ranking police officers who he knew since he moved to Qatar and asked for his advise. The police officer figured out what is going on hence commercial rental payments are usually paid by cheques and not cash. He gave the old businessman 17.500 QR and asked him to go and pay it to that Qatari man. Once the Qatari man get the money, the police will come in and arrest him. The businessman took the 17.500 QR and went to the new management's office. This was their conversation:
The Qatari man: hey! there is 500 missing.
The businessman : Oh sorry! ok, can you give me a receipt of receiving this money and I will go to the ATM machine to get the 500 QR.
The Qatari man: No!, Go get the 500 QR and I will give you the receipt!
Within seconds the police entered and arrested the Qatari man. (most probably he got released after few hours if not minutes..)
One week later, someone from the Police called the businessman and asked him to come to the Police office. Once he entered the police office, they arrested him and thrown him in jail...
His sons rushed over there to understand what the problem was and nobody gave them any information. After 3 days, they found out that the Qatari man has complained that this businessman insulted him in public by bringing the police to his office, and that the businessman faked a rental contract by changing the date..
This poor man stayed in prison for 47 days and non of his sons was allowed to visit him... They hired a lawyer for him and got him out after 47 days. The case ended after almost a year and he had to pay a fine of 10.000 QR.
Can you tell me where is the justice in this???
By the way, the high ranking police officer who gave the 17.500 QR and arrested the Qatari got terminated from his job few months after the incident...
The 62 years old businessman got a brain stroke few months after releasing him and stayed in hospital for almost 2 months..
both as per pappu's said :)
two in one .....lols
Prison or Internet Cafe ?!
sssssssshhhhhhhh dnt leak that news ....lols
but hw do u knw that :P
where was that
@pappu, i think the belly dancers is ur own room mate in the cell..lolz..
@marconandoz, sorry to hear that...it's always a must to bring the pataca..
One year ago, I was passing through a late night check-point, when I suddenly realized I had forgotten my ID and other car documents. .Ended up being temporary held in police custody (overnight).
And Miss Mimi is right; the police jail was disgusting to say the least.
dey provided shesha but only the water no tabacco...lols
and yes belly dancers were there but nt upto my standard so dey rejected me ....:D
was in Saudi not in Dubai ... there wont b belly dancer n sheesa :P
what about belly dancers. Do they give those facilities too. What about sheesha. :-P
if im getting free food plus all the facilities which make me happy wats the problem stayin in :)
i wonder how will u enjoy inside a jail..most esp in saudi jail..
no not at all...
i enjoyed dere :)
ohh..sorry to hear that :(
well why to mind :)
offense was breaking traffic signals and dont have money to pay the fine :(
@pappu..if u don't mind me asking..for what offense?
no SS im serious
@bachus, true..u're like i a holiday camp..with free access to internet..free food..comfy bed to sleep at night..lol..
SOunds like better conditions than in the labor concentration camps (sorry, I mean industrial area for bachelor expat workers).
@pappu really???u're kidding right??
lols pappu
those days i can never forget, the food, the bed, toilets etc were very neat and tidy the tv room and the play room :)
@pappu, have u been tried spending behind bars in saudi jail :)
if u cant type my spelling correct pls dnt spell it wrong also
lol Paap Pager
im not sure abt qatar jail but saudi jail is amazing :)
Have you ever seen GULF TIMES post anything bad about QATAR. Always appreciating, appreciating and appreciating.
@britey, this is the best part/s of that news :)
"Recently the department has hired qualified cooks and the meals offered to inmates are excellent in quality and quantity,” said the director."
and
"Yahoo Messenger, Skype, Facebook and Twitter, which would be offered free for the inmates...Some wards have two persons, and others four or six, according to the type of building."
so the "jail" is not a "jail" at all..if the news is true..any prisoner would love to stay inside than outside ..nice food..comfy wards with two or four "room mates" than in labour camps.. :)
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=520625&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16
Me too heard the same and read articles about it. But also heard that the MAIN JAIL (in some deserted area) is renovated after many years
I know someone who has and they said it was disgusting and very scarey.
Why not. surely, some QLer has experienced jail here ..
It is like asking Has anyone here actually visited the EMIRI DIWAN. Ofcourse NOT POSSIBLE.
I heard, the head is nicely shaved free of charge ...
Just as an aside. has anyone here actually visited a Qatari Prison ?
TFS :)
TFS...:)
I would disagree. I do not think it happens here. Here they follow the shariah rule.
i hope that fair justice is practice here..
I mean same mentality of 'some' people who know where & how to get the best of the both worlds....
Who sleep rough get themselves into custody in harsh weather conditions to get some relief 'comparatively'..
But this is happening [ even now at this moment ] in my city, that is in India.
Possible. But that i believe does not happen in QATAR. Justice is given fairly over here. In other countries probably could be.
Doesn't sound so great to me. Only able to talk to your family twice a month? Only allowed to do dress making or drawing in your spare time?
Not to mention that they don't say what the standards cleanliness and the quality of food is.
in general, i believe not all prisoners are all guilty.. some are victims as well..they get tortured and abused during interrogations, and many are forced to sign confessions of crimes they did not commit..in some cases, they are instances that a certain person is being paid to admit a crime in exchange of money due to poverty..
Then why to commit crime when later you can not face the world
@MM - so its the same in India?
Read my post at 09:33 hrs. up there.
in Australia ...
[ Multistorey glass buildings ... ]
@radoha, so it means life is more comfy behind bars in some countries..heard some stories before that some preferred to be locked in jail than to go out after their pardon fearing of not getting a decent job because of their history or fear of being avoided by friends/ families..
Back in England we have Playstations, access to the internet, sattelite television etc... most prisoners have better lifestyles locked up than when they are out.
so it seems to be the same in a few countries.
TFS shakti
You are right. But my was directed to chota and DK who opened up the topic.
yr right friendlyme i wud agree that
yeah they do exist..open ur eyes..observe and u will see..
Qatar has the best prison in the world according to a friend in jail, "it's a place like home".
thnks shakti for reminding us
you started it by posting a link and now you saying 'Ramadan'...
tsk!!
dawood most of them r imported
shisha u mean to say plenty of gays and lesbians in qatar sounds strange..........
Please refrain from such gays/lesbians topics
@dk, there's plenty of gays here..some are obvious but some hiding in the closet fearing of get caught by police or deported..actually not only gays, lesbians too..
dawood last yr 2 where caught in honda civic near corniche parking u can google as it was published in gulf times
yup qatar just like most other places has a thriving underground gay culture
don u mean to say lot of gays in doha..........?
yr right shakti seen there worst condition of living of bachelors why does the company not provide atleast standard acc and gov also ignoring the issue
maids having illicit relations , many gays are jailed and deported too from somewhere
@dawood, nope..i just find the news very interesting and thought of sharing it here..
Honestly it is very interesting to do research. But i would prefer to do research for the workers staying in numbers in one room in IND AREA. That place is no difference than a jail.
shisha are you doing some research study on inmates of jail.....?
@shaktimaan, thanks alot for the info.. :)
All are not real qataris. All migrated from other gulf countries or middle east and settled here. The real qataris are the Bedouins.
then dont commit any crime n go prison simble
shaktimaan, i read in one of the comments of an ex-prisonner in doha news that "qatari inmates get 10 times more privileges than other inmates..i dunno if he's a real ex-con but anyway..here's an excerpt from his comment:
ex-qatar-prisioner •
"they forget to mention the cockroaches, the filthy bathrooms, and the really racist way in which qatari inmates get 10 times more privileges than other inmates. I'm also talking about prison rules, that only apply to non qataris, like exceeding the 15 min call time punishment. I think I already know which section of the jail is going to get the skype calls and what not.
Let alone the why are half of those people forgotten in jail in the first place. Many get tortured and abused in their interrogations, and many are forced to sign confessions of crimes they did not commit in arabic without knowing what they sign. Why? so some teenage uneducated interrogator can get the bonus and save himself the investigation part. Of course, if you're qatari, and committed a crime, enjoy some tea, cold water and civilised respectful treatment."
Treating them as guests in a hotel does not work..
I am a supporter of the methods employed by Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County , Arizona State :o)
1. Large numbers of prisoners were Packed/accommodated in a very low capacity/facility.
2. Poor Hygiene level of premises were enough for him to get virus fever within first week. / like people spit around all over around even in living space.
3. It seems they do have some kind of inspections for premises, which they would do temporary cleaning for common areas and arrangement just to please the inspector.
4. There are prisoners who make lot of money inside jail by renting their smuggled mobile phone services to others and selling cigarettes/ other tobacco products inside jail for double or triple of its market price. Likewise they charge 10 riyals just for giving one miss call from their phone and to receive call. / Most of the time when police catch any one and put in jail they usually don’t get a chance to inform any of his friends/family and obviously phones will be seized during arrest except their wallet.
5. In the canteen guys were actually serving food from big cooking vessel to plate with their bare hand; without any spoons/ utensil.
6. Very often there are huge clashes between different groups like sri lankans, Egyptians, Nepalese, Indians, etc.
7. Majority of prisoners from srilanka and Nepal / may be his observance from only the particular jail compound / session where he was.
8. His first 4 days he couldn’t use bathroom since he was busy in puking each time he looked in and witnessed of NICE ambience. Then he was left with no option and got used to it. Hmmm…Poor guy.
One thing for sure i know. The food is excellent in the jail. They bring biryani or cook biryani.
In 'MY' city 'people' get arrested on purpose to spend a few weeks of extreme summer in jail just to cool off under fans & for constant supply of cold drinking water & a secure shade etc all precious privileges for them [ those 'people' ]
The other side of the coin was , it proved to be a boon for Police to solve scores of the petty crimes which were pending for the year.
My God bless all !!
Yes there are. I read somewhere, the same treatment given to expats. Its a jail. Not a vip terminal lounge.
i'm wondering if there's qatari inmates too?if yes, what kind of treatment they are getting?
brit: in my opinion prison is meant to be for enhancing the morals and behaving of the prisoners away from the society. so if they are treated well we can expect the purpose to be achieved (reap what you sow)
lols shakti .................:)
Lot of increasing crimes in QL too by spammers. :0(
with all these facilities given in a prison, very soon we will see a rise in crimes coz at the end the culprit knows tat he will be given a 4 star treatment in Prison...:(
this jail is all in one
Jails are for punishment , not holiday camps..
chota don: humans (I am fasting u know) ;)
osama guess the 13 will be from
only 13 females, this number is enough to explain that the society in general is still good.
The only problem was that the authorities mixed some chemical in the food which would prevent erection OMG early morning bed time stories
During the time of recession, I had visited one of my businessman friends in Dubai Central Jail as his cheque had bounced in one of his transactions.
What he told me about Dubai Central jail seemed awsome. They had chess, a table tennis board and a football playgound. Some who preferred reading could go to the library. The food was less in quantity but good. The only problem was that the authorities mixed some chemical in the food which would prevent erection. They didn't accept this fact but it was known to many that this prevented cases of homosexuality amongst the inmates.
TFS shud appreciate qatar government
May ALLAH ALMIGHT always keep us away from prisons.. Ameen..
TFS !