Qatari authorities should immediately free a Jordanian former media manager for the 2022 men’s World Cup, Abdullah Ibhais, after a UN committee determined that he has been arbitrarily detained for nearly three years, FairSquare, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch said today.

Ibhais, a former media manager for the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, Qatar’s World Cup organizing committee, was arrested in 2019, months after voicing concerns over the treatment of migrant workers on World Cup construction projects. FIFA, the international football governing body, refused to publicly support calls for Ibhais to receive a fair trial after he said that he had been the subject of a malicious prosecution. He was arrested again in November 2021 and is serving a three-year sentence for bribery.

“FIFA washed its hands of Abdulla Ibhais a month before the Qatar World Cup despite clear evidence of a grossly unfair trial in a prosecution instigated by their Qatari partners,” said Nick McGeehan, co-director of FairSquare, which has followed the case from the beginning. “This highly authoritative decision should compel them to act and publicly call for him to be freed and allowed to return to his young family.”

FIFA washed its hands of Abdulla Ibhais a month before the Qatar World Cup despite clear evidence of a grossly unfair trial in a prosecution instigated by their Qatari partners

Nick McGeehan, FairSquare

In August 2019, after a large group of migrant workers...

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