A new version of the arrest of Qatari coup convict
A new version of the scenario for the arresting of the main person who is accused in the foiled coup attempt in Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jasem Bin Hamad al-Thani, emerged on Wednesday in Beirut.
The new version said that the accused Sheikh took his private plane from Beirut airport, to his knowledge it was heading to Doha.
One of his close friends told the London-based al-Hayat daily that Sheikh Hamad made the trip voluntarily following negotiations with the Qatari authorities to arrange his return to his country and to stay there normally.
Sheikh Hamad's business secretary, Abdullah al-Rafee, told al-Hayat that stories debated about the arrest of Sheikh Hamad by the media were incorrect. Al-Rafee said, "Sheikh Hamad is legally living in Syria and is moving between the Arab states without restrictions," and that he often comes to Lebanon for "tourism."
Al-Rafee continued, "Recently negotiations took place between Sheikh Hamad and his cousin, the ruler of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khaleifa al-Thani, aiming at the former's return to Qatar to stay their normally."
Al-Rafee noted that Sheikh Hamad accepted the situation and put conditions for his return, including "boycotting of relations with Israel; stop providing Israel with gas from Qatar, releasing all political detainees who were arrested following the claimed coup attempt and lastly resuming natural relations between Hamad and the ruling family as was before."
Al-Refee added that in his recent visit to Lebanon a person named "Mubarak," who is a Qatari intelligence officer, met with Sheikh Hamad and handed him a special invitation to return to his country with approval of all his set conditions and asked him to stop his statements which criticized Qatar's relations with Israel and told him that a special plane is waiting him at the airport.
Al-Rafee said that "on this ground" Sheikh Hamad moved at his own will and special car from his residence in Beirut to the airport at the company of Mubarak and one of his escorts whose name was Ghanem (from the United Arab Emirates) and he got into the private plane which headed directly for Doha where he was surprisingly arrested.
Al-Rafee added, "On Saturday morning I was visiting Sheikh Hamad's mother in Syria, Sheikh Hamad talked to her from Qatar. But this phone call was a deception because he wad forced to talk to his mother but not to tell her he was arrested."
Al-Rafee asserted that the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence have no connection to the suspension process of Sheikh Hamad.
"The whole matter is a deception. It was not a security operation as claimed by the media," he stressed.