Tuesday, Jan 16th 2018
- Qatar says the pair fled the UAE in 2013 to escape political arrests
- The woman’s activist husband was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK
- But when she tried to renew her passport at the UAE embassy in Qatar, her application was refused and a demand was made for her extradition
- Qatar’s refusal to comply with the UAE request led to a rise in its social media attacks on Doha, Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said
One of the biggest Middle East crises in years was caused by the wife of an asylum seeker living in Britain, Qatar’s foreign minister claimed yesterday.
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said his country’s dispute with its Gulf neighbours began when it refused to hand the woman over to the United Arab Emirates.
The mother-of-six and her husband, an unnamed Emirates opposition leader, fled to Qatar in 2013 during a period of political arrests against government opponents.
Categories: Arab World, Asia, Qatar, The Muslim Times, United Arab Emirates