A British-Mexican man who says he was targeted for being gay and arrested on false drug charges in Qatar has been given a suspended six-month jail sentence, a fine amounting to about $2,700, and a deportation order by a court in the Arab nation, which is a vital U.S. ally in the Middle East, according to his family and Mexican officials.
In a statement shared with media outlets by his family, dual British-Mexican national Manuel Guerrero Aviña said he was “deeply disappointed with yesterday’s unfair verdict, issued in spite of the violationsof due process during my detention and trial, which included torture and mistreatment to pressure me into revealing the names of other gay partners and forcing me to use my fingerprint to sign multiple documents in Arabic without a translator.”
“The Qatari authorities have convicted me because I am gay, and this is a breach of my human rights,” Guerrero Aviña said, adding that he was glad he could leave Qatar, but condemned what he called the “unfair trial I have been subjected to and the torture and ill treatment I endured during my preliminary detention.”
Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, but Guerrero Aviña, who worked in the airline industry, had a home there and had lived a “normal life,” experiencing no issues with authorities until his arrest, his family said.
If you’re gay or a woman, don’t go to the Middle East.
If you’re gay or a woman,don’t go to the Middle East.Meanwhile Kevin De Bruyne (a footballer looking to get a lucrative contract in Saudi Arabia) today, on human rights in Saudi Arabia:
"Every country has its good and bad things. Some people will give examples of why you shouldn’t go there, but you can also give them about Belgium or England.
Everyone has less good points. Who knows, maybe they will tell you the flaws of the Western world."
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I had sympathies until the last paragraph. If you are gay, and you not only live in a country where that’s illegal, but you actively decide to move there, it really is your own fault. Stay the fuck away from backwards religions and their oil money regimes.
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At least they’re deporting him instead of taking his head.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A British-Mexican man who says he was targeted for being gay and arrested on false drug charges in Qatar has been given a suspended six-month jail sentence, a fine amounting to about $2,700, and a deportation order by a court in the Arab nation, which is a vital U.S. ally in the Middle East, according to his family and Mexican officials.
In a statement shared with media outlets by his family, dual British-Mexican national Manuel Guerrero Aviña said he was “deeply disappointed with yesterday’s unfair verdict, issued in spite of the violations of due process during my detention and trial, which included torture and mistreatment to pressure me into revealing the names of other gay partners and forcing me to use my fingerprint to sign multiple documents in Arabic without a translator.”
“The Qatari authorities have convicted me because I am gay, and this is a breach of my human rights,” Guerrero Aviña said, adding that he was glad he could leave Qatar, but condemned what he called the “unfair trial I have been subjected to and the torture and ill treatment I endured during my preliminary detention.”
Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, but Guerrero Aviña, who worked in the airline industry, had a home there and had lived a “normal life,” experiencing no issues with authorities until his arrest, his family said.
Middle East researcher Dana Ahmed told BBC News that Guerrero Aviña’s treatment in detention, and later in his first trial sessions, “raises serious fears that Manuel is being targeted for his sexual orientation and is being coerced into providing the authorities with information that they could use to pursue a crackdown on LGBTI individuals in Qatar.”
In a Saturday social media post, British parliamentarian Kate Osborne shared a photo of a letter to her and other members of the U.K. legislature from the nation’s top diplomat, Foreign Secretary David Cameron, addressing Guerrero Aviña’s case, in which he said he was “closely following” the proceedings, but that the U.K. government was “unable to interfere with the judicial affairs of other countries.”
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