Following 11 months of detention without charge or trial in the Qatari police station of Asima in Doha, Mohamed Farouk Al Mahdi was released yesterday, on 14 September 2010.
He returns to his young family and just in time to celebrate his youngest child's first birthday. "I was arrested 1 month after my baby's birth, and was not allowed to be with him for nearly an entire year, so it is all the more beautiful to now be back with my wife and children" said Mohamed Al Mahdi.
To recall:
Mr Al Mahdi was arrested on 15 October 2009 and held by Doha's Public Prosecution without formally being charged or tried. Two orders for his release were issued in May and September 2010, but the authorities refused to release him until 14 September 2010.
Alkarama submitted his case to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and to Qatar's National Commission on Human Rights on 14 July 2010. Alkarama welcomes Mr Al Mahdi's release, and calls on the Qatari government to compensate him and his family for the 11 months of arbitrary detention he was subjected to, as well as to release all other individuals detained without trial or charge in Qatar.
For more information or an interview, please contact media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1008).