Doha: A 52-year-old British businessman who was found hanging in a hotel in Doha, in 2019, was reportedly tortured by Qatar’s ‘secret police’, the British newspaper, The Times reported.
Marc Bennett, died by hanging in a hotel room in Doha on Christmas Day 2019, ten weeks after he was detained for a month, on dubious charges.
The man reportedly informed his friends of his ordeal in custody.
Bennett had moved to Qatar, after leaving the company “Thomas Cook”, to set up a branch of Qatar Airways – Discover Qatar – where he had spent seven years in the job.
He was arrested at the company’s Doha headquarters in October 2019, blindfolded and handcuffed. He informed his friends that he had allegedly been stripped, hosed, assaulted, and subjected to sleep deprivation over a period of three weeks in detention.
His arrest came after he resigned from Qatar Airways and received a job offer from a Saudi travel firm.
He was considering a move to a Saudi travel firm shortly before he died, at a time when the Saudis had cut all diplomatic relations with Qatar.
According to his family, he was then prevented from leaving the country after his release, not knowing if he would be re-arrested, and placed in “legal limbo,”
According to the newspaper, Bennett was released suddenly on November 2 and checked into a Doha hotel without any documents related to his arrest or any legal proceedings against him.
His widow Nancy Bennett, 51, told The Times on Thursday: “There are so many unanswered questions. He left here with the whole world ahead of him.”
The Times revealed that Qatari authorities refused the entry of a United Nations mission investigating human rights violations in Qatar to the centre where Bennett was detained in 2019.
Qatar Airways told The Times that Marc was a “valued and popular former colleague… who made a significant contribution to our business”.
The Qatari government did not respond to The Times’ requests for comment, but in an official note to the Foreign Office, it said that Marc had been “released in good health” and that security services were not responsible for his suicide.
It is worth noting that the British Foreign Office closed the case last September just one week after Liz Truss became foreign minister.
Since obtaining the honour of organizing the 2022 World Cup, Qatar has been subjected to many criticisms, especially with regard to human rights and foreign workers.
