Updates: The two human rights defenders were placed in solitary confinement from March 23 to March 27, 2013. They were released on 18 April 2013 and were subject to a travel ban.

12/04/2013

The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) has received reliable information that human rights defenders Mohammed Issa Al-Baker and Mansoor Rashed Al- Matroushi, who have been detained in Doha since 22 March 2013, started a hunger strike on the morning of 8 April 2013 which they plan to maintain until they are released. Both Mohammed Issa Al-Baker and Mansoor Rashed Al-Matroushi are human rights defenders who have been campaigning peacefully and legitimately for human rights in Qatar for over a decade. Mohammed Al-Baker is a member of the Board of Directors of the Aladl -Justice- organization  for Human Rights, which is based in Geneva and Mansoor Al-Matroushi is a volunteer with the same organization.

Reports received by the GCHR confirmed that their detention has been extended for two more weeks by the State Security Apparatus, which is the only authority that has the power to detain citizens for up to a month pending interrogation. In order for the State Security Apparatus to distance itself from their arrests, the two defenders are kept in the Metropolitan Police prison, which belongs to the Ministry of Interior. No charges have been made against them.

On Friday 22 March 2013, Mohammed Issa Al-Baker and Mansoor Rashed Al-Matroushi were on their way back from a family trip to Mesaieed, 40 kilometres south of Doha when they were stopped by plain clothes security men at a checkpoint and arrested. They were then brought to the central police headquarters in Doha. For more information see our appeal dated on 26 March 2013:

https://www.gc4hr.org/news/view/372

The GCHR expresses grave concern for the security and safety of Mohammed Issa Al-Baker and Mansoor Rashed Al-Matroushi particularly in light of the fact that they started an open hunger strike. The GCHR believes that their arrest and  current detention is directly related to their legitimate and peaceful human rights work and in particular the exercise of their right to freedom of expression.

The GCHR once more urges the authorities in Qatar to:

1. Grant Mohammed Issa Al-Baker and Mansoor Rashed Al-Matroushi immediate and unfettered access to the medical treatment which they requires;
2. Immediately and unconditionally release human rights defenders Mohammed Issa Al-Baker and Mansoor Rashed Al-Matroushi;
3. Guarantee the physical and psychological integrity and security of Mohammed Issa Al-Baker and Mansoor Rashed Al- Matroushi;
4. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in Qatar are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions including judicial harassment. 

The GCHR respectfully reminds you that the United Nations Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, adopted by consensus by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1998, recognises the legitimacy of the activities of human rights defenders, their right to freedom of association and to carry out their activities without fear of reprisals. We would particularly draw your attention to Article 6 (c) “Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others: (c) To study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and in practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and other appropriate means, to draw public attention to those matters” and to  Article 12.2, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration.”