“Given the fact that Ronaldo was held in solitary confinement for four years prior to his trial, his allegation that he was repeatedly tortured in order to force him to ‘confess’, and the use of this ‘confession’ in his trial, his conviction is clearly unsafe,” Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, said.
“We are concerned that unless the allegations of torture of Ronaldo and the two other Filipino men are independently and impartially investigated, the current appeal will also be fundamentally unfair,” he said.
The appeal for Ronaldo’s case was held on March 9, 2015. Amnesty International said it has raised the torture claims before the Qatar government twice already but has not gotten a response.
“Despite the Qatari government’s eagerness to project a global image of a wealthy glamorous nation committed to respecting human rights, this case has brought to light a more sinister side to the Gulf state that the international community can no longer continue to ignore,” Boumedouha said.