December 8 – Human rights organisation FairSquare has called on the UN to help World Cup whistleblower Abdullah Ibhais, who is currently in prison serving a three-year sentence. Ibhais family have accused FIFA of “callous indifference” over his plight within and an opaque Qatari legal system.

Fairsquare has asked the United Nations (UN) Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to examine the case of Ibhais (pictured), a former media manager for the Supreme Committee who was arrested for bribery in November 2019, shortly after voicing his concern about the treatment of migrants workers. He received a five-year prison sentence, reduced to three years on appeal, but confirmed by the Court of Cassation.

Ibhais’ legal avenues have now been exhausted in Qatar.

Fairsquare argue that Ibhais has been arbitrarily detained on the basis of a demonstrably unfair trial. FairSquare co-director Nick McGeehan said: “Three Qatari courts have now convicted Abdullah Ibhais in the absence of any evidence of wrongdoing and despite credible allegations of a coerced confession. The fact that FIFA has yet to even call for Ibhais to receive a fair trial is another indictment of the organisation’s further decline under Gianni Infantino.”

Ibhais’ predicament dates back to a strike in a labour camp. He has claimed that his persecution is the consequence of standing up for the migrant workers. At the heart of Ibhais’s allegations was an internal ‘Crisis Comms’ WhatsApp group chat from August 2019. The...

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