THE GUARDIAN: State using them to track down other gay people, he says / Rights group tells of transgender woman kept in solitary
Gay Qataris have been promised safety from physical torture in exchange for helping the authorities to track down other LGBTQ+ people in the country, a prominent Qatari doctor and gay rights campaigner has told the Guardian.
Dr Nasser Mohamed, who lives in the US but retains contact with hundreds of gay Qataris, said that some secret networks had been compromised after arrests by Qatar’s preventive security department.
A lot [of gay Qataris] don’t know about each other,” Mohamed said. “And it’s safer that way because when the law enforcement finds one person, they actively try to find their entire network. But some of the people who were captured and physically abused were then recruited as agents.
“Now there are agents in the gay community that were promised safety from physical torture in exchange for working for the preventive security department and helping them find groups of LGBTQ+ people.” » | Exclusive by Sean Ingle in Doha | Tuesday, November 15, 2022
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