Tuesday 30 August 2016

Polish tourist arrested in Qatar for 'being gay'

Remember when banned ex-Fifa President Sepp Blatter was first asked about Qatar's ban on homosexuality, and how that would affect gay visitors to the 2022 World Cup? The feeble-minded bureaucrat speculated that it would surely be fine, just so long as gay people didn't have gay sex while they were in gay-hating Qatar.
Qatari police - tools at the ready
to stop the big gay threat in 2022

Even supposing that this would have been enough to reassure a single gay fan that Qatar will be the place to take a fun football holiday in six years time, it seems that it's not just practicing homosexuality that will be viewed by the Qataris as a crime. An 18-year-old Polish 'social media star' named Luxy claims that he was arrested in Qatar at Doha Airport in June on suspicion of being gay. He was imprisoned for two months before a judge - after lobbying from the Polish Embassy - granted his release, fining him €3,700 (it's not clear for what, exactly).

According to a report in the San Francisco Daily News, Luxy (his social media name) was visiting Qatar for the second time when airport security detained him on the grounds that there were problems with his visa from a previous visit. They confiscated his phone, scrolled through his pictures, then arrested him an hour later. They asked him if he was a man or a woman.

"They kept telling me I am a prostitute," Luxy is quoted as saying in the report. "I am from a bad family and they laughed at my Instagram photos. They told me some Qatari guy made the request to arrest me because I put his naked photo on Instagram." They reportedly gave him the chance to 'co-operate' by luring and meeting other gay men so that they could be arrested. Luxy declined this delightful offer.

Released from Doha Jail after 63 days, Luxy was re-arrested at his hotel two days later "for wearing makeup on Snapchat and Instagram". He was given the option to be deported. Unsurprisingly, he felt that he'd outstayed his welcome with the future World Cup hosts. His case is not yet closed, and he is banned from entering any Gulf Cooperation Council member states.

Why are so many nations obsessed with the apparent threat from homosexuality? How many instances in history have there been where sexual behaviour of any kind threatened the power of the state? Why would any state want to waste resources mixing itself up with the sexual lives of consenting adults? 

It brings to mind homophobes who repeatedly bring up the topic of how much they hate gays. Hey, why do you keep mentioning that? Can it be that the entire Qatari government and security sub-structure is secretly gay? Oh boys, put down those big hard truncheons, come in from the desert and let yourselves go - I can already picture Luxy as your guest MC at Qatar 22's Big Rainbow Fan Mile.

Update, September 1. Here is a statement from the Polish Embassy in Qatar that contrasts in some details with the detainee's story:

"A Polish national nicknamed Luxy, aged 18, was detained at Hamad International Airport in Doha on 06 July 2016 on a charge of money extortion, blackmail and assault on a Qatari national’s privacy on line (cyber-related offense) – not of being homosexual or due to a minor visa irregularities. His arrest has not been reported to the Polish consular services by the Qatari Police (which is by and large a standard practice in Qatar), until the detainee’s family information received a week after the actual detention. Polish consular service has never reported Mr Luxy missing. I visited the detainee in jail (remand over Criminal Investigation Department, not a prison) several times and found the arrest conditions decent and correct, what was also the opinion of the detainee. No irregular behaviour of any Police officer was reported to me by the detainee. Eventually 'Luxy' was released in mid-August on bail and allowed to leave Qatar national territory although, to my knowledge, the investigation is still underway."

3 comments:

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