Peter Tatchell arrested in Qatar protesting for LGBT+ rights weeks ahead of World Cup

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LGBT+ campaigner Peter Tatchell says he has been arrested for a protesting in Qatar, just weeks before the football World Cup begins in the Middle East state.

The claim was denied by officials though and other reports suggested that Qatari police on Tuesday stopped his one-man protest.

Mr Tatchell was demonstrating outside the National Museum of Qatar in the capital, Doha, while holding a placard reading: “Qatar arrests, jails & subjects LGBTs to ‘conversion’, before being detained.

He was also wearing a t-shirt with the hashtag: #QatarAntiGay.

Speaking before his protest, he claimed that it was the first LGBT+ protest to take place in Qatar.

“There can be no normal sporting relations with an abnormal regime like Qatar. It is a homophobic, sexist and racist dictatorship,” he said.

“Qatar cannot be allowed to sportswash its reputation. It is using the World Cup to enhance its international image. We must ensure that the tyrant regime in Doha does not score a PR victory.”

Two uniformed police officers and three plain clothes officials later arrived at the scene of the protest. They folded up his placard and took photos of Tatchell’s passport and other papers, and those of a man accompanying him.

Police left after shaking hands with Tatchell, reported Reuters.

Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar. Organisers of the World Cup, which starts on 20 November, and is the first to be held in a Middle Eastern nation, say that everyone, no matter their sexual orientation or background, is welcome, while also warning against public displays of affection.