Amnesty International Report of Qatar

Amnesty report highlights case of al-Murra tribePublished: Thursday, 24 May, 2007, 10:25 AM Doha Time

Staff Reporter
AT LEAST 2,000 people continued to be deprived of their Qatari nationality, according to the Amnesty International Report 2007 published yesterday.
Many of them are members of the al-Ghufran branch of the al-Murra tribe who lost their right to Qatari citizenship in 2004 and 2005 on the grounds that they were Saudi Arabian, although they denied this, the report said.
In March 2006, the authorities announced that they were carrying out a review of the cases and by the end of the year about 4,000 others were believed to have had their nationality reinstated.
In some cases, however, Qatari authorities were alleged to have amended individuals’ birth records to state that they were born in Saudi Arabia, rendering them ineligible to participate in elections, Amnesty International said.
At least 21 prisoners were under sentence of death in 2006 but no executions were reported. Some 17 detainees, including several foreign nationals, were released during the year after being held for prolonged periods by the security forces. Some had been held since 2005. At least one other was tried and convicted.
At least 31 prisoners sentenced for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government in 1996 remained in prison. Allegations that they were tortured or ill-treated in pre-trial detention were never adequately investigated, it was alleged.
Eighteen remained under sentence of death and 13 others were serving prison terms.
The UN Committee against Torture examined Qatar’s implementation of the Convention against Torture in May 2006.
The Committee welcomed Qatar’s report but expressed concern that Qatari legislation failed to define torture in accordance with international standards and that arrest and detention procedures placed suspects at increased risk of torture, particularly the lack of access to a lawyer or independent doctor or any requirement that the authorities notify a detainee’s relatives of the arrest.
The UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children, visited Qatar in November and expressed concern about the number of migrant workers who were victims of human trafficking.
Hamda Fahad Jassem al-Thani, a member of Qatar’s ruling family who had been confined to her home against her will since November 2003, was injured in June when she sought to escape, the report said.
She was admitted to hospital after intervention by the Qatari Human Rights Committee. In October, she was permitted to leave Qatar and rejoin her husband in Egypt.