UK football fan to sue UAE claiming he was tortured for wearing Qatar team shirt

Ali Issa Ahmad, 28, claims he was falsely imprisoned and tortured while on holiday in the United Arab Emirates in 2019

(SUHAIB SALEM/REUTERS)

A UK football fan is launching legal action against six senior officials in the United Arab Emirates who he claims were responsible for his torture and false imprisonment because he was wearing the wrong team shirt.

Ali Issa Ahmad, 28, from Wolverhampton, says he was on holiday in the UAE to attend the AFC Asian Cup in 2019 when he says he suffered racist abuse by officials for wearing a football shirt bearing the logo of Qatar.

He said he was ordered to remove the Qatari shirt as he attended the match at Al-Nayhan stadium in Abu Dhabi between Qatar and Iraq.

The next day, he says he was stopped again by officials and beaten before being detained and imprisoned between 23 January and 12 February 2019.

During his time in prison, Mr Ahmad said he was subjected to racial and psychological abuse and torture, including being beaten, electrocuted, cut and burned.

Speaking to the Middle East Eye, he said: “I’ve been abused and tortured and near killed in prison in the UAE… for wearing a football t-shirt.

“It’s unbelievable what they did to me.”

At the time of the football tournament, the UAE and Qatar were in the middle of a fierce diplomatic row. From June 2017, the UAE, along with other Gulf countries, led a political and economic blockade of Qatar, a dispute which only ended this year.

Qatar, the 2022 World Cup host, was accused by its rivals of supporting terrorism, a claim denied by Doha.

Wearing a Qatar shirt was an offence in the UAE, punishable with a large fine and an extended jail sentence, something Mr Ahmad says he was not aware of at the time.

He went on to claim that he had been stabbed by an unknown assailant the day before he was due to appear in court.

“I don’t know who did that - the authorities or the prisoners - they didn’t make any investigation into that,” he told MEE. He said the attack left him with a permanent scar and PTSD.

Speaking to the Guardian in 2019, he said he had been convinced he was going to die while in prison.

“I thought I would commit suicide rather than letting them kill me,” he told the paper.

On Thursday, Mr Ahmad sent formal letters of claim against the six UAE officials, including counsellor Saqr Saif Al Naqbi, head of state security public prosecution in Abu Dhabi, Maj Gen Faris Khalaf Al Mazrouei, commander in chief of the Abu Dhabi police, and Maj Gen Ahmed Naser Ahmed Al Dahri, second in command of the Abu Dhabi state security department.

The letters seek damages for false imprisonment, assault and battery, intentional infliction of harm including psychiatric harm, and negligence during his detention.

Represented by Carter-Ruck solicitors, he said he was launching legal action so “the truth can come out”.

“I have been waiting for too long for justice for what happened to me,” he said.

“I was very badly tortured and nearly killed in prison in the UAE. They tried to make it look as though I did these things to myself, that I cut and burned myself. It is so cruel that they did this.

“The UAE authorities have ignored all my complaints and there has been no investigation and no one held accountable.

“I have decided to launch a civil case against those who are responsible for torturing me so that the truth can come out and there can finally be justice for the terrible things that were done to me.”

At the time, UAE authorities denied the claims and said his injuries “appeared to be self-inflicted”. They added that he was arrested for wasting police time and making false statements.

Qatar went on to win the tournament, even beating the UAE 4-0 in an ill-tempered semi-final which saw Emirati fans throw shoes at Qatari players. After the victory, thousands took to the streets in Doha to celebrate.

The UAE embassy has been approached for comment.