A man formerly associated with the FIFA World Cup 2022 as a worker has been handed a jail sentence in Qatar. The
person, namely Abdullah Ibhais, who worked as a media manager for the World Cup
for three years, believes he got the jail sentence because he criticised the
Supreme Committee for its handling of migrant workers’ strike, who were
protesting against inhumane working conditions. 

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Abdullah Ibhais’ jail has sparked fierce
condemnation from human rights groups, who said that he was pressured to
confess which eventually led to his jail.

Human rights watchdogs criticised FIFA

Human Rights Watch and FairSquare issued a
press statement after Ibhais was jailed and said there is no evidence of
wrongdoing on Ibhais’s part. Both the human rights watchdogs have slammed FIFA
for its unwillingness to intervene in his case, saying it has enabled the
Qatari authorities.

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Qatar, however, said that Ibhais, who has
been on hunger strike for 31 days, was jailed for soliciting bribes and not for
speaking out against the Supreme Committee, which is responsible for organising
the 2022 World Cup.

“The court of appeal has upheld its guilty
verdict in the case of Mr Abdullah Ibhais. He was convicted following the
careful examination of an abundance of strong and credible evidence against him
for soliciting bribes to influence the outcome of a state-funded procurement
process. This evidence included extensive details of the crime – much more than
the defendant’s own confession,” said Qatar.

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‘It was not a fair trial’

Speaking after the verdict, Nicholas
McGeehan, co-director of FairSquare, who has spent years investigating human
rights in Qatar, said the decision raised serious concerns.

“This case goes to the heart of the serious
issues with Qatar’s World Cup and every day Abdullah Ibhais remains in jail
more people will know his name, know what he did for the migrant workers who
built Qatar’s World Cup, and know the price he has apparently paid for that,”
he said.

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“Did he get a fair trial? Absolutely not.
Did Fifa make a call for a fair trial? No, they didn’t, which I think is pretty
scandalous,” he added. “It was Qatar’s World Cup organisers who instigated this
prosecution, but it was Fifa’s silence that enabled today’s verdict, for which
there is no evidence other than a forced confession.”

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The Supreme Committee said
that Ibhais received his full salary from the date of his suspension in
November 2019 until August 2020, when he was made redundant along with numerous
others as part of a budget restructuring exercise.