Libya boycotts shooting championship in Doha for terrorism support

CAIRO – 29 October 2018: The Shooting Libyan Federation announced on Oct. 24 that it will boycott the 14th Arab Shooting Championship set to be held in Doha from November 15 - 24 due to the Qatari regime's support of terrorism in Libya.

"The game of shooting in Libya has been suffering for more than four years of compelling circumstances because of the deterioration of the security and economic situation as a result of the ongoing war, which was supported and funded by Qatar," Adel Quraish, head of the Shooting Libyan Federation, said in a letter to the head of the Arab Shooting Federation.

In the message, Quraish said that there is "irrefutable evidence" that Qatar supported terrorism in Libya, adding that Doha authorities are using sports to distract attention from its terrorist practices.

Quraish said that the Libyan Federation is fully aware that the boycott violates the Olympic Charter, announcing that the federation holds full responsibility for the decision.

"Our posts are not more expensive than the souls of our sons. How could we participate in a sports forum, while the [wounds] of our sons are bleeding, and our homeland's wound has not yet healed?" The message read.

Quraish affirmed that the Shooting Libyan Federation is not in dispute with Libya's "brothers in the Qatar Shooting and Archery Association or the brotherly Qatari people."

Serag Shabaan, lawyer of the victims residing in the Libyan city of Tawergha, revealed in September that the Libyan town suffered of many humanitarian disasters since 2011, stating that the biggest disaster of all was the deliberate silence of the international community and human rights organizations in the face of the violent attack on the residents of the city.

As of 2011, Tawargha, a mere 38 kilometers from the city of Misrata—one of the main, if not the main, strong holds for Libyan ex-President Muammar Gaddafi, has become known as a ghost town after witnessing mass violence. The town witnessed gross violations against children, men, women and the elderly in several forms from torture to murder to unlawful imprisonment at the hands of the armed militias backed by Qatar, explained Shabaan.

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Additional reporting by Mohamed Abdel-Baky, Lolwa Reda