By Tumwesigye Anslem
The case of Tayeb Ben Abdulrahman has gained significant international attention as a crucial UN resolution on his arbitrary detention by Qatar approaches. This case directly highlights Qatar’s controversial judicial practices in the field of human rights.
During meetings held on May 21 and 22, 2025, in Geneva, UN expert Philippe de Gavi obliquely referred to Tayeb Ben Abdulrahman’s troubling situation, publicly highlighting the seriousness of the violations he has been subjected to. Tayeb Ben Abdulrahman’s presence at the meeting, along with his wife and lawyers Patrick Ramael and Luc Vidal, caught the attention of diplomats. However, the Qatari delegation, which included controversial judge Ali Abdullah Al-Jusaiman, avoided any contact with the defense team.
Qatari Judge Ali Abdullah Al-Jusaiman is at the center of
a full-blown judicial scandal, implicated in a case of forging judicial documents.
According to a revelation from a Qatari whistleblower, Al-Jusaiman arbitrarily extended the detention of Al-Tayeb bin Abdulrahman, and then publicly denied any knowledge of Al-Tayeb’s case before the UN Human Rights Committee in 2024, despite leaked documents clearly proving his direct involvement and full knowledge of the details of the arbitrary detention.
Attorney Patrick Ramael strongly condemned Qatar’s blatant contradictions before the UN, focusing on the judicial forgery perpetrated by Judge Al-Jusaiman. Faced with a public confrontation in Geneva, the judge was forced to implicitly admit to the case, a belated admission that revealed the extent of the judicial manipulation and forgery of documents used against Bin Abdulrahman.
In this context, lawyer Ramael recently announced the filing of a new civil lawsuit against Qatar for “detention and torture within an organized gang” against another French citizen who was subjected to abuses similar to those suffered by Tayeb Benabderrahmane.
The international human rights community is eagerly awaiting the UN’s impending decision, which is expected to set an important precedent in the fight against impunity in abusive judicial practices.
As a reminder, Tayeb Benabderrahmane, a French citizen, was arbitrarily detained for 307 days in 2020 before being sentenced to death in absentia more than three years later, sparking international outrage. The United Nations was alerted by two separate reports submitted by NGOs accredited to the organization, which specifically denounced the gross human rights violations in this case, including the rights of his children.
