Whistleblowers Abdullah Ibhais, who spoke out about human rights violations in Qatar and ended up in prison, had his passport revoked in Jordan. He should continue to be silenced, he told the sports show.
The human rights conference runs in Oslo until Wednesday (June 3, 2026) “Oslo Freedom Forum“. Abdullah Ibhais was scheduled to speak. But the whistleblower, who also told the sports show about the catastrophic conditions for guest workers at the World Cup in Qatar and ended up in prison for it, was not allowed to travel to Norway.
On May 10, Jordan’s secret service confiscated Ibhai’s passport and has not returned it to this day. Ibhais described this to the sports show in a detailed account of the events. The Jordanian citizen Ibhais, who was released from prison in March 2025 after three and a half years in Qatar and now lives with his family in the Jordanian capital Amman, was at a media conference in Bergen, also in Norway, at the beginning of May.
“I don’t know if there is a travel ban”
After his return, he was interrogated for hours at the airport by the Jordanian secret service. Ibhais says about the sports show: “I don’t know what the situation actually looks like, what the actual purpose of the interrogation and search of my house was. I also don’t know whether there is currently a travel ban on me or whether the case against me that began at the airport is still ongoing.”
UN finds “arbitrary” detention
The sports show and the background magazine “Sport inside” of WDR have been reporting for many years on the fate of Ibhais, who was employed as media director in the organizing committee for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. After he made public abuses and blatant human rights violations against guest workers, he was later sentenced to a shortened prison sentence. “I was a prisoner of this World Cup”he told the sports show in March 2025 after his release from prison in Doha.
Ibhais is still waiting for help from FIFA
The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) at the United Nations officially stated that he was detained “arbitrarily” and awarded him the right to compensation and reparation. So far, Ibhais has received nothing. Even the world football association FIFA, which he asked for help, did not budge.
During interrogation at the airport, Abdullah Ibhai refused to respond to demands to remain silent in the future, especially in relation to the media. The reason given was that Ibhais was endangering the good relations between Qatar and Jordan.
Abdullah Ibhais felt the situation was becoming increasingly threatening during the interrogation. In the meantime he even had to fear being imprisoned again.
The authorities withheld his passport. So he couldn’t fly to Oslo. What he wanted to say at the human rights conference he had to reveal to the secret service in Jordan during interrogation. The officials then demanded that he change the speech. He won’t do that. He will keep them exactly as planned. He did that too, but in a video link.