Qatar Detained, Mistreated LGBT People Ahead Of World Cup: Rights Group

Security forces in Qatar arbitrarily arrested and abused LGBT Qataris as recently as last month, Human Rights Watch said on Monday, in the runup to hosting football's world cup.

Police in Qatar have arbitrarily arrested and abused LGBTQ people ahead of next month's World Cup, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Monday.

The Gulf state, where homosexuality is considered illegal, denied that anyone would be arrested because of their sexual orientation, and condemned what a human rights group had reported.

Human Rights Watch said it "documented six cases of severe and repeated beatings and five cases of sexual harassment in police custody between 2019 and 2022."

The US-based organization said the latest case was in September.

Four transgender women,

A bisexual woman and a gay man spoke of how members of the Ministry of Interior's Preventive Security detained them in an underground prison in Doha.

There, Human Rights Watch said, "they verbally harassed detainees and subjected them to physical abuse, from slapping to kicking and punching until they bled."

A woman said she lost consciousness

.

Security officers also verbally abused and extracted confessions under duress, and denied detainees access to a lawyer, family, and medical care.”

A bisexual Qatari woman said she was beaten until she “fainted several times.”

The report added that a transgender Qatari woman told how she was held once for two months in an underground cell and once for six weeks.

She said, “They beat me every day and shave my hair. They also forced me to take off my shirt and take a picture of my breasts.”

She said she suffered from depression and has been afraid to go out in public ever since

.

In all cases, Human Rights Watch said, detainees were forced to unlock their phones and had contact information with other LGBT people.

Sex outside marriage and same-sex sex are both illegal in the conservative Muslim country, and can be punished with up to seven years in prison.

But none of the detainees said they had been charged.

Human Rights Watch said the six appeared to be being held under a 2002 law that allows detention for up to six months without charge "if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the accused may have committed a crime," including "violation of public morals." "".

A Qatari government official said the allegations were "categorically and unequivocally false".

"Qatar does not tolerate discrimination against anyone, and our policies and procedures are grounded in a commitment to human rights for all."

The official said the government had held talks with Human Rights Watch and other important groups,

But "the recent allegations were not brought to our attention until they were first reported in the media. If Human Rights Watch contacted us, we would have been able to refute the allegations."

The official insisted that there are no "referral centers" operating in the country,

Although there is a rehabilitation clinic that supports individuals with behavioral conditions such as drug addiction, eating disorders and mood disorders.

The official said Human Rights Watch's move "to disseminate clearly false information... threatens their self-proclaimed commitment to telling the truth."

The human rights organization called on the government in Doha to "put an end to the mistreatment of LGBT people by security forces, including by stopping any government-sponsored programs aimed at diversion practices."

Human Rights Watch also urged FIFA, the world soccer body, to pressure Qatar to launch reforms that protect LGBT people.

World Cup organizers in Qatar have ramped up assurances in recent weeks that all fans will be "welcome" at the World Cup.

FIFA said LGBTQ rainbow flags will be allowed in and around stadiums.

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