Qatar arbitrarily arrests Syrian cancer patient to pressure husband

CAIRO – 28 February 2020: State authorities in Qatar are persecuting foreigners, especially Syrians, who are being subjected to maltreatment and are deprived of their rights unlike Qatari citizens or residents of other nationalities.

Rehab Bitar, a human rights campaigner and lawyer, has tweeted “a message to Qatari Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani” that demanded him to stop human rights and laws violations in his country.

Bitar clarified to Egypt Today in an interview that one of her clients is a Syrian woman who got assaulted, threatened and arrested to pressure her husband into waiving his company shares for his business partners.

“I demand the Emir of Qatar to intervene in the case of my Syrian client who got beaten, imprisoned and threatened to pressure her husband into waiving his shares to his Qatari business partners,” she said on Twitter.

@TamimBinHamad #tamimbinhamad #وزارة_الداخلية @MOI_Qatar @QATARNHRC @alraya_n @AJEnglish @USEmbassyQatar pic.twitter.com/oQYJbMntyV

— Dr Rehab Bitar - د. رهاب بيطار (@rehabbitar) February 22, 2020

The human rights advocate said her client, who is also a cancer patient, got involved in a number of lawsuits and was sentenced to house arrest, therefore, she is currently unable to receive her medications.

The client’s husband, according to Bitar, owned a motor agency with other business partners who sought to take over his company shares, so they began filing lawsuits against him until one of his lawyers conspired with them after being exonerated more than once.

She further added that a Qatari police officer and his cousin, who is said to be working at the Qatari general prosecution, assaulted her, however, a paperwork manipulation prevented her police report that she filed against them.

Bitar also provided Egypt Today with copies of some of the documents she sees somewhat safe to be published without her client getting harmed by Qatari authorities.