Whistleblower Abdullah Ibhais has been in a Qatar prison for a year. The former communications director of the organizing committee for the 2022 World Cup had campaigned for striking workers. Now his family has spoken out and raised serious allegations. According to information from the sports show, the federal government is informed about the case.
Abdullah Ibhais’ brother Ziad Ibhais made allegations in an interview with Sportschau. The prison conditions for Abdullah Ibais would become stricter shortly before the start of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Abdulla Ibhais was told by the prison administration that he was no longer allowed to receive visitors in prison except his wife. “They want to isolate him from the outside world. And that shows how scared they are of him. And it shows that they know he’s not in prison because he’s a criminal. He’s there because he’s silent must be brought.”
The wife was also denied a personal meeting with her husband on November 2nd. She was later informed that Abdullah Ibhais was now in solitary confinement and private meetings were no longer possible because information about these visits had been leaked to the media.
Ibhais had campaigned for striking workers in the WM-OK
Ibhais, who is from Jordan, was communications director for the organizing committee of the World Cup in Qatar. He has now been in prison for a year. On December 15, 2021, the Court of Appeal in the capital Doha confirmed the sentence. Ibhais had been accused of taking bribes. He denied that.
In October 2021, the sports show reported exclusively on his case together with the Norwegian football magazine “Josimar”. Ibhais provided internal documents and WhatsApp chat histories showing how the World Cup Organizing Committee sought to prevent critical reporting of working conditions.
Ibahis said in 2021: “The entire procedure is retaliation for my critical attitude towards the World Cup Organizing Committee and their treatment of migrant workers.” At that time, Ibhais had campaigned for striking workers and thus opposed OC boss Hassan Al-Thawadi.
Qatar’s organizing committee, for which Ibhais had worked, rejected all allegations at the time. The depiction of a conspiracy against Ibhais “ridiculous, defamatory and dead wrong”.
Human rights organizations: Ibhais did not get a fair trial
His family also rejected the allegations and spoke in a statement at the time of an “arbitrary verdict”. Accordingly, Ibhais, who should initially have been serving a five-year prison sentence, was not allowed to appear in person at his appeal hearing. The court did not even hear the defense. The whole process took less than a minute, they said. The family currently reports that she has not yet received an answer to another appeal to the next higher authority.
Several human rights organizations protested the verdict that Ibhais did not receive a fair trial and that the confession was coerced. “It is clear that they wanted to silence him. There is no evidence against him”, human rights expert Nicholas McGeehan told Sportschau after reviewing court documents. According to information from the sports show, Luise Amtsberg, the federal government’s human rights commissioner, has also been informed about Abdullah Ibhai’s case. She plans to hold talks about the human rights situation in Qatar after the World Cup.
Ibhais’ brother: ‘FIFA is part of this injustice’
Abdullah Ibhais’ brother Ziad also criticizes the world football association FIFA. “FIFA is ignoring our requests and I believe they were complicit with the Qatari authorities in Abdullah’s plight and the injustice done to Abdullah”says Ziad Abdullah. “FIFA was part of that injustice.”
The family’s hope is that Abdullah will have a chance at justice. “But that won’t happen if we don’t put pressure on the Qatari authorities”said Ziad Abdullah. “So that we don’t go to the World Cup at the expense of people who are imprisoned and people who are deprived of their rights. Because my brother is a prisoner of this World Cup.”