The British government has been urged to challenge Doha over its alleged support for terrorism after the Qatari prime minister was photographed at a family wedding of one of the world’s leading terror financiers.
Photos published in The National and in other newspapers showed Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Qatari Premier and Interior Minister, standing alongside Abdulrahman Al Nuaimi at the wedding of his son on April 11, just weeks after the country had added him to its terrorism list. Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal, who has been living in Qatar for more than a decade, was also pictured at the ceremony.
The images provoked outrage across social media and among security experts, who said the pictures called into question Qatar’s commitment to targeting terror suspects and those who finance extremism.
In a letter to Britain's Middle East Minister Alistair Burt, The Telegraph reported that Conservative member of Parliament Zac Goldsmith warned: "We cannot afford to turn a blind eye to Qatar's behaviour." He also pointed to a string of "inconsistencies" and "worrying questions" raised by Qatar's response to the wedding photographs.
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Mr Goldsmith's intervention came after the Qatari government issued a statement last month to The Telegraph that the prime minister's attendance at the wedding was in a "personal" capacity. The statement claimed that Mr Al Nuaimi had his assets frozen and was placed under a travel ban since 2015. It added that he had been jailed for eight months until this March, when he was released "due to lack of evidence".
But Mr Goldsmith said there was reason to doubt whether Mr Al Nuaimi had been in prison for that amount of time, pointing to a series of tweets from his account which suggest otherwise.
In the letter to Mr Burt, he said: "The Qatari Government Communications Office published on their website a statement in response to the article in The Telegraph which contained a variety of inconsistencies and raises worrying questions about Qatar's claims to be adopting a zero-tolerance approach to terrorism.
"On the specific case of Al Nuaimi, the Qataris state that he was only released from jail in March 2018, but his publicly available Twitter feed @binomeir suggests otherwise. It is true that Al Nuaimi's Twitter feed fell silent on July 10, but he resumed tweeting on December 25, 2017. How is that possible if he was still in custody?"
The MP also said that certain individuals are still missing from Qatar’s designated terrorist list.
"It was welcome news that Qatar finally published a list of sanctioned individuals in March 2018, but the list did not include the UN sanctioned Khalifa Al Subaiy, a Qatar-based terrorist financier and facilitator," he said.
"We cannot afford to turn a blind eye to Qatar’s behaviour. This is a country which has considerable economic investments and media interests in this country,” he added. “So I urge you to raise these matters with your Qatari counterpart at the earliest opportunity."
Mr Al Nuaimi is a former head of the Qatar Football Association who was designated by the United States and United Nations for financing Al Qaeda in Iraq.
The statement from the Qatari government last month claimed: “There is no hypocrisy at work here.”
“The prime minister will continue to support the good work of his employees, and will not avoid a family affair because a defendant standing trial may possibly be in attendance.”
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Key recommendations
- Fewer criminals put behind bars and more to serve sentences in the community, with short sentences scrapped and many inmates released earlier
- Greater use of curfews and exclusion zones to deliver tougher supervision than ever on criminals.
- Explore wider powers for judges to punish offenders by blocking them from attending football matches, banning them from driving or travelling abroad through an expansion of ‘ancillary orders’.
- More Intensive Supervision Courts to tackle the root causes of crime such as alcohol and drug abuse – forcing repeat offenders to take part in tough treatment programmes or face prison.
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Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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The past Palme d'Or winners
2018 Shoplifters, Hirokazu Kore-eda
2017 The Square, Ruben Ostlund
2016 I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach
2015 Dheepan, Jacques Audiard
2014 Winter Sleep (Kış Uykusu), Nuri Bilge Ceylan
2013 Blue is the Warmest Colour (La Vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 et 2), Abdellatif Kechiche, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux
2012 Amour, Michael Haneke
2011 The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick
2010 Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Lung Bunmi Raluek Chat), Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2009 The White Ribbon (Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte), Michael Haneke
2008 The Class (Entre les murs), Laurent Cantet
The Settlers
Director: Louis Theroux
Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz
Rating: 5/5
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GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
Race 3
Produced: Salman Khan Films and Tips Films
Director: Remo D’Souza
Cast: Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez, Bobby Deol, Daisy Shah, Saqib Salem
Rating: 2.5 stars