Manuel Guerrero Aviña, a Mexican living in Qatar, was arrested on February 4 for being a gay man and living with HIV, for which they requested the release of his compatriot, who has received mistreatment and torture.
The Manuel Guerrero committee accused the Mexican is in a prison located in the Qatari city of Doha, where he has been denied antiretroviral treatment.
It was reported that to arrest him for his sexual orientation, the Qatari police used a fake profile on Grindr, a dating app, to contact him and invite him to participate in a meeting with other people from the LGBT+ populations.
The committee described that Manuel Guerrero would meet on February 4 with the alleged person with whom he agreed to meet on the dating application but “found police officers waiting for him to arbitrarily detain him.”
They added that during the arrest they planted methamphetamines on him to incriminate him for the crime of drug possession.
His defense points out that since his arrest, Guerrero has been a victim of cruel treatment, as well as psychological torture.
They added that he has been isolated and threatened, in addition to being deprived of food and water. They have also denied him his right to have a lawyer and forced him to sign documents in Arabic without a translator present.
The committee in defense of Manuel Guerrero demanded that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) issue a response to the request submitted to the case and that the Government of Mexico intervene through the Embassy in that country for his immediate release and repatriation.
It is also required that the Mexican Embassy in Qatar investigate and clarify the arbitrary detention, fabrication of crimes, physical and psychological torture, as well as the effects derived from Manuel Guerrero’s state of health.
Also, the representative of Qatar in Mexico issues a public apology for the criminalization of a person belonging to the LGBT+ population.
The Mexican Embassy in Qatar stated that it cannot intervene in the case of the gay Mexican detained in that country “due to his dual nationality.”
In a brief statement, he indicated that he would not intervene in the case of Manuel Guerrero, who has been living in Qatar for 7 years and was arrested on February 4 in Doha due to his sexual orientation.
“Because the interested party has registered his residence in Qatar as a national of the United Kingdom, the consulate of that country in Doha is the entity responsible and recognized by Qatari authorities to carry out consular procedures on his behalf,” the embassy said on the social network.
However, he assured that the embassy is attentive to the evolution of the case, “it remains in communication with his relatives and verifies that he has legal representation.”
TYT Newsroom
