• International

Mexico City, Aug. 21 (EFE).- By María Julia Castañeda

Manuel Guerrero, the British-Mexican citizen who was imprisoned in Qatar six months ago for being gay, warned the international community in an interview with EFE on Wednesday about the detention centers in the Arab country, saying they are “inhumane” and violate human rights.

Upon his return to Mexico, Guerrero denounced the “deplorable” and “totally unhealthy” conditions in which he was detained, pointing out that he “could not believe the reality he was living.”

The Mexican called for a change in the protection of human rights in Qatar, a signatory to international treaties such as the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

“A country with so much money cannot justify how it treats the people it detains. I hope that little by little, there will be a change in how they think and how they administer justice in these countries,” Guerrero said.

He explained that for the first seven days, he was in a room “full of cockroaches,” with little access to water and food, in an overcrowded 12-person cell where there were more than 40 people, most of whom spoke Arabic and all of whom smoked except him.

“Now I understand why they do it. They do it to break you, (…) they put you in this situation to make you accept things you didn’t do, to make you sign everything, to make you agree not to have lawyers,” he said.

Qatari police arrested the 45-year-old Mexican on Feb. 4 in Doha after he arranged to meet another man on a dating app that turned out to be a fake profile run by Qatari authorities, who accused him of “homosexual conduct” and “drug possession.”

The country’s penal code criminalizes sexual intercourse between people of the same sex.

Guerrero claimed that after his arrest, he had no access to a lawyer or translator, and he was forced to sign documents in Arabic with his fingerprint.

He was unable to contact his family or the Mexican and British embassies, he says he was held incommunicado for three days while the authorities “fabricated the case,” something he now understands in retrospect.

“If I had had immediate access, legal advice, to the consulate, to my family, it would have been a different situation,” he said.

Activists and relatives of Guerrero accused the Qatari authorities of fabricating a drug possession charge to maintain the criminal case against him.

HIV Discrimination

Guerrero said that when prison authorities discovered he was HIV-positive, he was sent to a punishment cell where he was isolated for four days with almost no water or food.

“There was complete ignorance. Because they (the guards) were supposedly afraid that I would contaminate them with HIV, because they believed that it could be transmitted by touching or sneezing,” Guerrero said.

Torture and repression

Guerrero added that the withholding of his antiretroviral medication during the 44 days of his detention “became a form of torture,” as he was interrogated at night about his sexual partners and pressed to share his telephone contacts.

The prison authorities also suspended his medication as “reprisal” for telling his family what he was going through.

But beyond the physical damage, Guerrero said he is dealing with the psychological consequences of his imprisonment.

However, he stressed that the visits and letters he received from his family and friends were his main source of strength, even though the authorities cut off all his communications during the last week of his detention.

Now that he has regained his freedom and is safe in Mexico, Guerrero wants to rebuild his life and use his case as an example to support others.

However, he stressed that he has no plans to become an activist for the time being.

Aviation is his greatest passion, and he is eager to resume his career, which took him to Qatar seven years ago, where he worked as a project manager for Qatar Airways.

However, he shared his “disappointment” at not receiving support from the company after his arrest, despite having put all his efforts into his work.

“In the future, I will have to balance work and personal time a bit more. That’s a lesson learned,” he concluded. EFE

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