Overview

• On August 13 a Doha court sentenced 71-year-old Remy Rowhani to five years in prison on charges of undermining Islamic teachings, cybercrime violations and unlicensed fundraising.
• Court documents showed authorities used posts from X and Instagram accounts linked to Rowhani as evidence, though Human Rights Watch found them limited to holiday greetings and calls for justice and equality.
• Rowhani has been held in pretrial detention since April without his lawyer being allowed to review court documents or defend him at an initial June hearing.
• United Nations experts and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a joint statement on July 31 warning of systemic discrimination against Qatar’s Baha’i minority.
• Human Rights Watch and the Baha’i International Community have condemned the verdict as an attack on religious freedom and are calling for his immediate release.