Qatari police arbitrarily detained and mistreated members of the LGBTQ community, assured the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a report published Monday, one month from the 2022 World Cup scheduled in this rich gas emirate. Homosexuality remains illegal in Qatar but FIFA World Cup organizers have said same-sex couples will not be harassed at the tournament.
The Gulf state strongly denied any arrests related to sexual orientation and condemned the NGO’s report. Qatar is being closely watched for its human rights policy as the competition approaches, which is expected to attract at least a million foreign spectators.
HRW says it has “documented six cases of severe and repeated beatings and five cases of sexual harassment in police custody between 2019 and 2022”. The last case dates back to September, according to the NGO.
Four transgender women, a bisexual woman and a gay man recount in this report how members of the Preventive Security Department of the Qatari Interior Ministry detained them in an underground prison in Doha. Security services “verbally harassed and physically abused detainees, slapping, kicking and punching them until they bled”.
“They beat me every day and shaved my hair”
“One of these women says she lost consciousness. The security services also used verbal abuse, forced confessions and prohibited detainees from obtaining legal advice, contacting their families or seeking treatment,” the NGO said.
A Qatari transgender recounts having been imprisoned twice in an underground cell. “They beat me every day and shaved my hair. They also asked me to take off my shirt to take a picture of my breasts”.
These six detainees were forced to unlock their phones, which gave authorities access to information about members of the community, but none of them have been charged, adds HRW. Sex outside marriage and homosexuality are prohibited in this conservative state and can be punished by up to seven years in prison.
A Qatari government official said the allegations were “absolutely false”. “Qatar does not tolerate discrimination against anyone, and our policies and procedures are based on a commitment to human rights for all,” he said.
According to the official, the government has held talks with HRW and other critical groups, but the latest “allegations did not come to our attention until they were first reported in the media. If Human Rights Watch had contacted us, we could have refuted these allegations”.
HRW called on Qatar to “end the mistreatment of LGBTQ people by security forces, including stopping any government-sponsored programs targeting conversion practices. The Qatari official claimed that no “conversion center” operates in the country.
The NGO called on Fifa and the world of football to urge Qatar to launch reforms to protect the community. Fifa has indicated that community rainbow flags will be allowed in stadiums.