Jean-Pierre Marongiu is a French entrepreneur who spent five years in prison in Qatar. He has recently written a book about his experiences, entitled InQarcéré.

In the following TV interview Mr. Marongiu talks about what happened to him in Qatar. Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Les Observateurs has an article (in French) about Mr. Marongiu’s ordeal.

Video transcript:

00:12 A Zoom dedicated to Qatar. Our guest was detained there as a prisoner for almost

00:16 five years. He published this book: InQarcéré [Incarcerated],

00:20 published by Nouveaux Auteurs. Jean-Pierre Marongiu, good day. —Good day.

00:24 Sir, my first question, my first questions:

00:28 What were you doing in Qatar? Why have you been imprisoned there?

00:33 “Why in the world did he want to get in that galley?”[Molière quote]. I’m an expert

00:37 on management. And internationally recognized. I gave conferences worldwide, and

00:41 Qatar Petroleum came to headhunt me in London and then in Rome, in order for me to create

00:45 in Qatar, in Doha, a center for formation of the Profession of Management. Qatar

00:49 needs specialists and experts. This is the reason why I was there.

00:53 I refused to be subsidized by the State of Qatar, and I created my own

00:58 society Project and System with my own means.

01:02 My life savings went into it. But I really believed in the project. After a couple of successful years,

01:07 the sponsor — since in Qatar the Kafala [sponsorship system for foreign workers]

01:11 is applied and imposes a local partner for the creation of every company… —Kafala?

01:14 I’m sorry, could you specify? —It’s Islamic law, which rules

01:18 the everyday life of all the people who live on Islamist territory. —Ah, OK.

01:22 I say “Islamist”, because between Islam and Islamist

01:26 the difference is so tiny, that… —We will talk about Islam later, you have

01:31 a vision, yes. — So my sponsor, a godfather,

01:35 in French, godfather in the mafia sense of the term, came to see me and said:

01:39 “The success of the company is such that it’s now internationally recognized.

01:43 I wish to integrate it in my group of companies.” Every Qatari —

01:47 and they are very few: 360,000, for a population of 3 million. Well, those

01:52 outside of those 360,000, the remaining three million, are slaves.

01:56 Therefore every Qatari is a sponsor of ten to a hundred

02:00 companies and receives the income from those companies. And he came to tell me,

02:04 this gentleman, who was a member of the royal family: “I’m very interested

02:08 in integrating your company into my group of companies,

02:12 therefore I’m asking you to leave the country.” I thought he was going to buy my company shares

02:16 from me, of which I was the only investor.

02:21 I invested 2,350,000 euros during the six years

02:25 of activity; and he told me: “No, not at all.” He gave me

02:29 one riyal, which is worth about a couple of cents in euros, while telling me,

02:33 “It’s that, or you’ll never leave Qatar, you and your family.”

02:37 And so you were incarcerated.

02:41 In your book you specify: “incarceration by bouncing check”

02:46 By insufficient funds. —Absolutely. I was

02:50 in conference with the Qatar Foundation — the same institution

02:54 that financed Mr. Tariq Ramadan; I think the latest

02:58 book by [Christian] Chesnot and [George] Malbrunot [Qatar Papers] explains it —

03:02 when I received a phone call from my banker saying: “Checks

03:06 are being sent and we have no funds.” In fact the sponsor came by ten minutes earlier

03:10 in order to empty the accounts of all liquidity. And I found myself therefore

03:15 incarcerated, because the checks bounced. —“Twelve counts

03:19 of sentencing are holding me” you said in your book… —Yes. —and you have therefore

03:23 experienced the Qatari Judiciary System. Could you tell us a little bit about it?

03:27 In one word: It’s rather radical. —Yes, in one word it’s very simple:

03:31 There is NO Judicial System in Qatar. The Justice Ministry

03:35 is place under the orders of the Interior Minister —So no separation

03:39 —Absolutely not… —…between judicial authority and the political power? —Exactly.

03:44 And the judge takes orders form the Interior Minister.

03:48 You say: “Voilà, the judge sentences based only on his intuition, voilà, it —…and of his mood

03:53 …justice, the crime, it’s the crime of “ugly face” [which might have displeased to the judge].

03:56 The crime of “ugly face”, the crime of a bad mood,

04:00 It depends on… You have to understand that that files are piled

04:04 on the desks of Qatari judges; the judge is arbitrating

04:09 for twelve minutes per session [per case]; the files accumulate, so