After
Inner City Press Exclusive on
Human Trafficking by NY Qatar
Royals UK Finding Of Abuse
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Follow up to
exclusive
FEDERAL
COURTHOUSE, April 21 – The
Qatar ruling family's abuse of
employees and laws was exposed
in an off the record initial
conference at
in the U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
New York on
February 14; Inner
City Press was the only media
present. Inner City Press
wrote an exclusive story that
day, February 14, then more in
the following few days as more
sources contacted us. Now it
has learned that the UK's
Daily Mail days later on
February 21 false claimed an
exclusive on the story, here.
By contrast, we credit and link
to this potentially relatedly
story
that "Mahamoud Ahmed, 79, was
found to have been racially
abused by medical attache
Abdullah Al Ansari while
working at the Mayfair embassy
as a night security
officer. Somalian-born
Mr Ahmed was called a “black
slave”, “donkey” and “dog”,
and was pushed by the Qatari
diplomat during an incident in
2013. An employment
tribunal in London last month
found Mr Ahmed had then been
dismissed by Mr Al Ansari on
the basis of his race and he
was awarded £8,000 in damages.
Mr Ahmed’s local member in
parliament, Greg Hands,
requested that the government
consider stripping diplomats
of their immunity or expelling
them from the country if they
breach employment laws.
Mr Ahmed was originally unable
to have his case heard until
2019 because the Qatari
embassy tried to claim
diplomatic immunity against
his complaint. But a
2017 Supreme Court ruled that
claiming immunity from
employment laws was
incompatible with the European
Convention on Human Rights,
allowing the case to go
ahead. Mr Hands wrote to
Jeremy Hunt, the UK Foreign
Secretary, to look again at
the Supreme Court ruling and
whether legal action could be
taken to punish diplomats in
such cases. As it
stands, embassies in the UK
are protected from claims of
unfair dismissal through the
State Immunity Act." On April
10 we reported that these
Qatari royals, stating that
they are diplomats, are
seeking to further extend the
case, writing that "Defendants
Sheikh Jassim Abdulaziz
Al-Thani and Sheikha Al
Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani
(“Sheikh and Sheikha”) are
Qatari residents and
diplomats, and as a result,
frequently travel to Doha for
reasons pertaining to their
diplomatic duties and their
participation in other civic
engagements. At the moment,
Sheikh and Sheikha (and
members of their staff, many
of whom are anticipated to be
document custodians in the
litigation) are scheduled to
be in Qatar for the remainder
of the month of March, through
the beginning of April to
prepare for and attend the
formal opening of the Qatar
National Museum (as Sheikha is
the Chairperson of Qatar
Museums). The parties have
actively participated in
written discovery thus far;
they have already exchanged
document requests and
interrogatories, and they are
in the process of negotiating
a confidentiality stipulation.
However, as a result of Sheikh
and Sheikha’s (and their
staff’s) travel schedules,
Defendants anticipate some
subsequent delays in the
upcoming stages of discovery,
especially pertaining to data
collection of ESI from
custodians (as requested by
Plaintiffs) and the scheduling
of their depositions (which
are currently noticed for
April 16, 2019). In order to
ensure that Defendants are
able to collect, process,
review and produce ESI
responsive to Plaintiffs’
document requests, and
schedule mutually agreeable
dates for depositions to take
place in New York thereafter,
Defendants respectfully
request that the current
discovery deadlines be
modified as follows: Current
Deadline Proposed Deadline
Deposition Completion Date May
1, 2019 July 1, 2019
Completion of all Fact
Discovery June 10, 2019 August
9, 2019 Status Conference June
14, 2019 August 16, 2019 (or
any other date that is
convenient for the Court)."
Back to August? Since
its exclusive
report that day, Inner
City Press has been contacted
by more employees and
whistleblowers and a range of
apparent legal violations by
the Qatar royal family has
come to light.
Beyond the
failure to pay overtime which
was the subject of the
February 14 proceeding, Inner
City Press is now informed
that others of the Qatar
royals' workers are brought in
through JFK airport on private
jets, into limousine that
drive onto the tarmac. These
employees are then made to
work long hours with no
protections in the mansion at
9 East 72nd Street in
Manhattan.
Inner City Press
is informed, tellingly, that
one female worker from the
Philippines in forced to sleep
in front of Sheikh
Jassim bin Abdulaziz
Al-Thani's bedroom room so
that she can be ready to bring
him food or water or even give
massages at any hour. His wife
Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad
Al-Thani, the sister of
Qatar's ruler, buys art for
Qatar's museum and runs the
"Reaching Out To Asia" foundation.
Meanwhile her workers have
their hair pulled and a tooth
broken by her son. When
workers are fired they are
urged to fly to Doha where
they would face arrest.
The scams work
this way: the Qatari royals'
employees signed contracts in
Doha and then are told that
their visas to the US, unless
they are smuggled / trafficked
in through the JFK Airport
tarmac, are under the control
of the royals. While waiting
to be processed at JFK they
are presented with a new less
favorable contract and told if
they do not sign it, they will
not be admitted. If they work
for the family in Qatar, they
face imprisonment for any
disagreement.
In New York the
family's close protection
guards, some without visas,
brandish illegal large knives.
NYPD was called when the
royals sought to have one
fired employee, Chantelle
McGuffie, removed from her
apartment at 221 East 50th
Street near the UN. Still this
family, these systematic
crimes, have yet to be acted
on by authorities including
the U.S. Attorney for the
Southern District of New York
despite the facts dragged
through the SDNY court.
Inner City Press,
in reporting this despite
threats - at the UN, Qatar's
state media Al Jazeera has
worked with UNSG Antonio
Guterres' spokesman Stephane
Dujarric to have Inner City
Press roughed
up and banned,
see Columbia Journalism Review
here
- aims to put an end to this
impunity. Watch this site.
Background: the
sister of the ruler of Qatar
is being sued by at least
three employees who say they
were made to work six days a
week without being paid
overtime, and were retaliated
against. Inner City Press was
the only media present at the
initial pre trial conference
on the case in the U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
on February 14, and was
tempted to object when the
Qatari royal's lawyer from the
Proskauer law firm urged SDNY
Judge J. Paul Oetken for a
confidentiality order.
Royals of a
gas-rich emirate that has
locked up poets for
criticizing them, seeking to
cover up their retaliation and
refusal to pay overtime? It
remains to be seen how much
will be covered up in the
case. The defendants are
Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad
Al-Thani and Sheikh Jassim bin
Abdulaziz Al- Thani.
From the answer
to the Complaint: "Defendants
admit that Mr. Bancroft began
his employment in Doha, Qatar
and that he accompanied
Defendants when they moved to
New York, but otherwise deny
the allegations in
Paragraph 39 of the
Complaint. 40.
Defendants deny the
allegations in Paragraph 40 of
the Complaint. 41.
Defendants admit that Mr.
Bancroft accompanied
Defendants on their European
travels in various countries
during the summer of 2016, but
upon information and
belief, otherwise deny
the allegations in Paragraph
41 of the
Complaint.
42. Defendants admit that Mr.
Bancroft accompanied
Defendants on their trip to
Qatar in the summer of 2017,
but otherwise deny the
allegations in Paragraph 42 of
the Complaint. 43.
Defendants admit that Mr.
Bancroft accompanied
Defendants on their European
travels in various countries
during the summer of 2018, but
upon information and
belief, otherwise deny
the allegations in Paragraph
43 of the
Complaint.
44. Defendants admit that Mr.
Bancroft traveled with the
family to Miami and Boston."
This is the
life of corrupt royals and
diplomats, such like those at
the UN up to and including its
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres who lives alone in a
$15 million mansion on
Manhattan's Sutton Place
(where he favors Qatar state
media Al
Jazeera, using it to
oust the independent Press
which questions him.) This is
the world of immunity and
impunity and now, it is urged,
confidentiality. Inner City
Press, now covering the SDNY
daily, will have more on this.
***
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