Tuesday, October 26, 2021
Criticism of the head of the World Cup
Prison for working for Qatar’s workers?
The former communications director of the World Cup in Qatar is sentenced to five years in prison. Because he campaigned for striking workers and criticized the tournament’s OC boss? Today an appeals court will decide on the sentence. There are still many unanswered questions.
Abdullah Ibhais had a good job, the Jordanian was communications director for the organizing committee of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. But six months ago he was sentenced to five years in prison. Because he accepted bribes, the prosecution said. Because he stood up for striking workers, he believes himself. Now an appeals court is to decide on his sentence.
The case of Abdullah Ibhais is so exciting because it is also a case of Hassan Al-Thawadi. The head of the World Cup, so the logs of a Whatsapp chat suggested by the “Sportschau” and the Norwegian football magazine “Josimar”, wanted to prevent critical reporting on the Qatar World Cup in August 2019. At that time, pictures of workers on strike went around the world.
Forced confession?
The magazine “Josimar” has put the chats on its homepage. In it you can read how a discussion arises in a group called “Crisis Communication” about how the World Cup OK should react to the strikes. The crucial question: Were there workers on World Cup construction sites among the strikers, who primarily demanded non-payment of wages – or not?
Communication director Abdullah Ibhais takes a stand against OC boss Al-Thawadi in the discussion. “We cannot say that there were no World Cup workers among the strikers,” Ibhais writes clearly at one point. A sentence with consequences? An internal investigation into Ibhais was launched in October 2019 and he was arrested in November. His confession was forced through threats, he says. According to “Sportschau” statements, the World Cup OK expressly ruled out that it wanted to take revenge.
Human Rights Watch and Fairsquare, however, protested against the first verdict. According to human rights organizations, Abdullah Ibhais did not receive a fair trial. Should he actually have to start a prison sentence, he announced a hunger strike against the “Sportschau”.