Fair trial council condemns Qatar's detention of Egyptian citizen

CAIRO – 1 December 2019: Chairman of the Arab Council for Supporting Fair Trials and Human Rights expressed concerns as Walid Abd al-Aziz, an Egyptian citizen arrested in Qatar, has not yet been released.

Abdel Aziz, along with Egyptian Ali Salem, a director for the technical sector in beIN sports, which is a subsidiary of Al-Jazeera media network have been arrested in Qatar over charges of spying for Egypt and Saudi Arabia to help the piracy of Qatar's beIN Sports TV network.

ACSFT chief Abdel Gawad Ahmed said his council would internationally escalate the issue and lodge a complaint to the United Nations against the Qatari regime.

The Qatari regime has violated international conventions and the right of a fair and legal trial, Ahmed said, calling on the Qatari authorities to guarantee the legal rights of the defendants in compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Egyptian businessman Ahmed Abu Hashima has denounced the arrest in October, saying in an interview with TV presenter Amr Adib that the indictment of Ali Salem over espionage charges proves that Al-Jazeera network is a "military intelligence organization" rather than a commercial civilian one.

"I work in a professional manner and use the best human cadres in my job, and I knew that sports channels are the locomotive to promote the media system as a whole, and tried to provide a distinctive sports media service for the Egyptian people," Abu Hashima said, referring to ON Sport channel.

An Egyptian-British legal team, along with the International Labor Organization (ILO) and a number of human rights organizations, will file lawsuits against Qatar and beiN Sports, to demand the release of the accused Egyptians, he said.

"The dignity of the Egyptians abroad is part of the dignity of 100 million Egyptians," Abu Hashima said, calling the arrest of the two Egyptians as "manifest injustice."

Al-Jazeera aims to establish "political sports colonialism to influence Arab public opinion," he added.

Assuring the two Egyptian detainees in Qatar, Abu Hashima said that "the political leadership and all the state institutions and the Egyptian people are standing with you. Your dignity is part of our dignity. You have been subjected to a clear injustice despite your honorable history, and your right will not be wasted."