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DOSSIER
Workers unite As the Qatari capital Doha prepares to host the 2022 World Cup, it has permitted a rare protest against employment conditions for its huge migrant workforce. Workplace fatalities are common among the Indian and Nepali laborers attracted by the construction boom.
Qatar’s crackdown on dissent The life sentence given to a Qatari poet for criticizing the Emir has prompted accusations of hypocrisy in a state that backed Arab revolutions Reuters Regan Doherty, DOHA
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court in Qatar, which has supported Arab Qatari ruler’s past promotion of a more uprisings abroad, jailed a local poet for open society, including his hosting of life for criticizing the emir and inciting the groundbreaking television channel revolt, a sentence that drew outrage and Al Jazeera, which has given a voice to cries of hypocrisy from human rights groups. many opposition groups abroad. “This is In his verses, Muhammad Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami wrong,” Ajami said. “You can’t have Al praised the Arab Spring revolts that toppled four Jazeera in this country and put me in jail dictators, often with the help of money and other for being a poet.” support from the tiny, energy-rich Gulf state. But Qatar, a close U.S. ally and major he also criticized Qatar’s own absolute monarch. natural gas producer with a large “This is a tremendous miscarriage of justice,” said American military base, has escaped the defence lawyer Nagib al-Naimi, who conveyed the unrest seen in other Arab countries. The verdict to Reuters after a trial held behind closed Emir has taken a high-profile role at times doors in the capital Doha. in calling for human rights, for example At the prison where he has been held for a year, when he went to Gaza last month, the first Ajami, 36, later told Reuters he believed the Emir, foreign leader there in years. Al Jazeera Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, to be “a good has assiduously covered the Arab revolts, man” who must be unaware of his plight. Naimi said though it gave scant coverage to an uprising last Qatar, a sponsor of the defence would appeal. A royal pardon may also year in neighboring Bahrain, ruled by another Gulf the Arab Spring, has be a possibility. Arab monarchy. The Qatari government has also taken a hard line on criticisms of the Emir Ajami was not allowed in court and Naimi taken a prominent role in the confrontation between, said the defence was barred from making oral on the one hand, Sunni Muslim-ruled Arab states arguments, although he contested the prosecution like itself and Saudi Arabia and, on the other, noncase that Ajami called for revolution in Qatar, an Arab Iran and its Shiite allies in Syria, Lebanon offense which carries the death penalty. Amnesty and elsewhere. International described Ajami’s arrest in November Qatar is backing the rebels in Syria’s civil war. 2011 as coming after he published a poem It supported the NATO-backed uprising in Libya named “Jasmine” for the symbol of the and street protests that ousted rulers Tunisian revolt in January last year that in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen. The DATA launched the Arab Spring. In a broad emirate’s maroon and white flag has POINTS criticism of Gulf rulers, he had written: been a common sight on the streets “We are all Tunisia, in the face of the of Arab capitals where demonstrators Qatar has repressive elite.” have challenged autocracy. But freedom actively supported Amount of a loan from Qatar to Egypt to aid Ajami “did not encourage the overthrow of expression is tightly controlled in the uprisings across reconstruction of any specific regime,” Naimi said. He small Gulf state, home to less than two million the Arab world, described the charges as having been “inciting the people. Self-censorship is prevalent among national backing rebels in overthrow of the ruling regime,” a capital offense, newspapers and other media outlets. Qatar has no Libya and lending millions to postand criticizing the ruler, which is punishable by up organized political opposition. revolution Tunisia. to five years imprisonment under the Qatari penal In October, Human Rights Watch criticized In 2009, the code. Among offending passages from the poem, what it said was a double standard on freedom imprisonment translated from Arabic, was the line: “If the sheikhs of expression in Qatar and urged the Emir not to of poet Moneer cannot carry out justice, we should change the power approve a draft media law penalizing criticism of Said Hanna for and give it to the beautiful woman.” In another the Gulf emirate and its neighbors. In neighboring insulting Egyptian section, Ajami accused a fellow poet of being “with monarchy Saudi Arabia, human rights activist Ali al- president Hosni Mubarak attracted the sheikhs, playing with their Playstations.” Hattab said: “We are shocked by the verdict. Qatar worldwide Naimi, who has been largely in solitary has tried to help other countries like Libya and Syria opprobrium. confinement, spoke to Reuters in the presence of become more democratic, but they won’t accept it at prison guards and others: “The Emir is a good man. home. It’s shameful, and a double standard.” I think he doesn’t know that they have me here for a year, that they have put me in a single room. Additional Reuters reporting by Rania El Gamal in If he knew, I would be freed,” he said, noting the Dubai and Dasha Afanasieva in London.