By Andrew Warshaw
December 3 – Zahir Belounis, the French-Algerian footballer whose story of being trapped in Qatar claiming 18 months’ of unpaid wages prompted the intervention of human rights organisations and even the French government, has broken his silence over his treatment by saying he plans to sue the two clubs he played for in the Gulf state.
Belounis, who says he dropped his legal action in Qatar in exchange for receiving an exit visa after several failed attempts to leave, told a news conference in Paris that he will instead take the two clubs to court in France for fraud, extortion of money and inhuman working conditions. He claims he is owed between €120,000 and €150,000.
Through his lawyer Frank Berton, Belounis said he intends to file lawsuits against Military Sport Association president Gamaan Al-Hamad and Al-Jaish president Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al-Thani, who is the brother of Qatar’s emir.
“We’ve agreed to take the case to the Paris Public Prosecutor at the end of the week or the beginning of next week based on three things: fraud, particularly inhuman working conditions – which is a specific offence in the criminal code – and extortion,” said Berton. “We hope that the Paris prosecutor will open an investigation.”
Belounis played for the Military Sport Association from 2007 to 2010 and then, when the club got promoted and changed its name, for Al-Jaish. Claiming he had not been paid since in June 2011, he remained stranded in Qatar with his wife and daughters, both born there, and sank into depression.
Partly as a result of his case, the global pressure on Qatar to change its controversial kafala employment system, under which workers need permission to leave the country from their “sponsors”, intensified.
Qatari football officials strongly deny Belounis’ version of events but the player told reporters his case proved how things can quickly turn sour if the authorities there are challenged, with no union representatives to turn to.
“A few years ago, I would have never thought that I could be the prisoner of a sponsor,” Belounis said. “They destroy you if things turn bad. It’s a big fight to be heard and leave the country because the sponsor does whatever he wants. They hurt me, my wife and my two daughters, I can’t forgive that.”
Belounis says his demand for an exit permit was first denied in February and that he was eventually allowed to leave only because he accepted signing a letter of dismissal backdated to February that deprived him of his wages from that month to the end of his contract in June 2015.
He also turned on FIFA, who argued it could not take up his case because he had ignored its own dispute channels and instead gone through the Qatari judicial system. “I’m angry with all the people who could have helped me and who looked at this case from afar,” said Belounis.
He said he had hoped FIFA president Sepp Blatter, during a recent visit to Qatar, would have done more to ease his plight.
“When Blatter arrived in Qatar, I was telling myself that he could meet me at least. But no, there are more important matters than Zahir Belounis. That collateral damage means nothing. Of course, I’m angry. Especially since he met people who can get me out of the country within 24 hours. And he did nothing.”
Once the case has been opened, an investigating judge will be appointed within six months though it remains unclear how binding any verdict would be on the Qataris.
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