Government Communication Office Condemns Baseless Claims of Media Targeting Qatar
Government Communication Office Director HE Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed bin Saif Al-Thani expressed the State of Qatar’s strong condemnation and denunciation of the baseless claims and fallacies made by some media outlets that lack professionalism and compliance with the rules and standards of media practice.
Speaking to QNA, HE the Government Communication Office director said the recorded confession that was aired on Thursday by Abu Dhabi and Emirates channels and features Qatari citizen Hamad Ali Mohamed Al Hamadi was recorded under force and mistreatment while being held by UAE’s State Security Department in 2014.
He added that Al Hamadi traveled to the UAE by land accompanied by Youssef Abdul Samad Al Mulla, another Qatari citizen, on June 30, 2014 for tourism, adding that the security authorities there knew about Al Hamadi’s workplace and, hence, arrested him and his friend at Al Ghuwaifat Border Post and fabricated charges against them without any evidence. He said the two citizens were forced under torture and duress to confess to the fabricated charges and were denied trial before a normal court and instead stood trial before state security courts that have no legal guarantees for a fair trial as they only allow one degree of litigation in violation of international standards.
HE Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed bin Saif Al-Thani said the detention of Al Hamadi and Al Mulla and fabricating charges against them was part of the campaign carried out against the State of Qatar as well as the move by Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain to withdraw their ambassadors from the State of Qatar in 2014. He added that the State of Qatar didn’t want back then to expose the flagrant violations and illegal actions taken against Al Hamadi and Al Mulla in order to preserve the fraternal relations between the brotherly countries, noting that Al Hamadi was released on May 22, 2015 and Al Mulla on May 8, 2015.
The Government Communication Office director stressed that it isn’t unfamiliar for such media to falsify facts and violate professional rules and values because they have devoted their media outlets to tendentious political agendas.
He reaffirmed that the State of Qatar is not affected by such suspicious media campaigns, which expose the intentions of those who reveal or incite them, and that these campaigns will not succeed in achieving their illegal and despicable goals.