Man arrested in Qatar Grindr ‘honey-trap’ thought he’d never return home
Manuel Guerrero Aviña was arrested in Qatar. (Twitter)
A gay British-Mexican man, jailed in Qatar after being caught in a police “honey-trap”, has said he thought he’d never see home again.
Manuel Guerrero Aviña was detained in the Middle East state, where homosexuality is illegal, in February after arranging to meet a man – who turned out to be an undercover police officer – using gay dating app Grindr.
His family called the arrest a “honey-trap operation”. Officials continue to claim it was for possession of drugs.
On 12 August, a campaign set up by his family to free him, announced on X/Twitter, that he had been released and was on a flight to London. Since returning to the UK, he had warned LGBTQ+ people to “be careful when visiting Qatar”.
Following a court hearing in June, during which he was found guilty of possessing an illegal substance, the former British Airways employee was given a six-month suspended prison sentence, fined £2,100 ($2,700) and made the subject of a deportation order.
Now, Aviña has recalled his 44 days in a Qatari prison.
‘I was terrified’
“There were so many times I was terrified. I thought I would never be able to leave,” he told the BBC. “I thought I might get lost in the system. I never thought I’d return home safely.”
Aviña, who lived in Qatar for seven years without any previous issues, living his life “behind closed doors”, has always insisted the police planted drugs in his flat and said the interrogation he was subjected to focused solely on his sexual orientation and sexual partners.
A Qatari official told BBC News that Aviña was arrested only “for possessing an illegal substance” and treated with “dignity and respect throughout his detention”, claiming that his family made “numerous false allegations” to support his case.
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