The veteran LGBT activist and campaigner Peter Tatchell was stopped by police as he staged a protest in Qatar earlier than the World Cup subsequent month.
Mr Tatchell, 70, mentioned he stood outdoors the National Museum of Qatar in Doha on Tuesday for round an hour sporting a T-shirt that learn “Qatar Anti Gay” and carrying a placard that mentioned: “Qatar arrests, jails & subjects LGBTs to ‘conversion’.”
He was stopped by 5 law enforcement officials, who folded up his placard and took photographs of his passport and different papers and people of a person accompanying him.
Speaking earlier than the protest, Mr Tatchell mentioned: “Qatar cannot be allowed to sportswash its reputation. It is using the World Cup to enhance its international image. We must ensure that the tyrant regime in Doha does not score a PR victory.
“Despite FIFA saying that discrimination won’t be tolerated, if a Qatari footballer got here out as homosexual, he could be extra prone to be arrested and jailed than be chosen for the nationwide group. That’s discrimination and in opposition to FIFA’s guidelines.
“I did this protest to shine a light on Qatar’s human rights abuses against LGBT+ people, women, migrant workers and liberal Qataris. I am supporting their brave battle against tyranny.”
Mr Tatchell, who’s director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, a human rights organisation, staged an identical protest earlier than the World Cup in Russia in 2018.
Footballers involved by Qatar LGBT rights file
The World Cup begins within the Gulf state on 20 November.
Homosexuality is illegitimate within the conservative Muslim nation, and a few soccer stars have raised considerations over the rights of followers travelling to the occasion.
Organisers of the World Cup, which is the primary held in a Middle Eastern nation, say that everybody, irrespective of their sexual orientation or background, is welcome, whereas additionally warning in opposition to public shows of affection.
Commenting on Mr Tatchell’s demonstration, the Qatar Government Communications Office mentioned that “rumours” he had been arrested are “completely false and without merit”.
“An individual standing in a traffic roundabout was cordially and professionally asked to move to the sidewalk, no arrests were made,” it added.
But in an interview with Sky News, head of the Qatar World Cup Nasser Al Khater mentioned the nation’s anti-LGBT legal guidelines won’t be modified and followers must be “respectful of the culture”.
“At the end of the day, as long as you don’t do anything that harms other people, if you’re not destroying public property, as long as you’re behaving in a way that’s not harmful, then everybody’s welcome and you have nothing to worry about,” he mentioned.
He added that though followers will be capable to wave rainbow flags, selections on gamers sporting ‘One Love’ armbands are for FIFA.
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A report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) has claimed that Qatari police have arbitrarily arrested plenty of LGBT individuals as just lately as final month.
A Qatari official responded by saying HRW’s allegations “contain information that is categorically and unequivocally false”.
A spokesperson added: “Qatar does not tolerate discrimination against anyone, and our policies and procedures are underpinned by a commitment to human rights for all.”
Source: information.sky.com”