Qatar: Two Qatari Lawyers Handed Life Sentences
The two other Qatari men tried in absentia are poets Mohammed Hamad Mohammed Ftais al-Marri who was sentenced to a 15-year prison term, and Mohammed Rashed Hassan Nasser al-Ajami, also known as Ibn al-Dheeb, who received a life sentence. The latter is a former prisoner on whose behalf Amnesty International had campaigned.
On 29 July 2021, the Emir ratified Law No. (6) of 2021 regarding the procedures for the election of the Shura Council. The election plans were first approved when the permanent written constitution was adopted following a 2003 referendum. The new electoral law divides Qatari nationals into three categories: 1) Citizens aged 18 and over, and whose grandfather was born in Qatar, can vote in districts in which their tribe or family reside. They can also register their candidature for the Shura Council as long as they are aged 30 or over. 2) Citizens who have acquired the Qatari nationality - provided that their grandfather is Qatari and born in Qatar, can vote in districts in which their tribe or family reside. They cannot register their candidature for the Shura Council 3) Naturalized Qatari citizens do not have the right to vote nor to be candidates for the Shura Council.
Protests of tribal members affected by the exclusion, mainly from the Al Murra tribe, erupted near Doha around 7 August 2021. On 8 August 2021, the Ministry of Interior stated that seven men were arrested and referred to the Public Prosecution, accused of “using social media to spread false news and stir up racial and tribal strife”.
On 11 August 2021, following talks between the tribes’ elders and the authorities, further protests were called off. Al Murra members said that the Emir had promised to consider protesters’ demands.
Arrests continued to take place throughout August and September 2021. Many were released upon signing a pledge, promising not to speak out about their detention and to stop criticizing the new law or calling for their rights. Hazza and Rashed bin Ali Abu Shurayda al-Marri refused to sign the pledge.
The Al Murra tribe is one of the largest tribes in eastern Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Its members have long faced severe discrimination and been deprived from access to education, employment, and health care. In 2004 and 2005 the entire Ghufran clan, a branch of the Al Murra tribe, were stripped of citizenship, accused of holding Saudi nationality in secret (Qatar does not recognize dual nationality), after some of its senior members were accused of involvement in a counter-coup after Sheikh Hamad – the current Emir’s father - deposed his father in a bloodless coup in 1995. Over 5,000 people were affected, but the measure was eventually reversed for all but a small number believed to have been directly involved in the plot.