When England and the US battled to a 0-0 draw on the World Cup final week, Utah Lawyer Common Sean Reyes was within the crowd, his tickets, airfare and lodging paid for by the federal government of Qatar.
It was a lavish perk price 1000’s of {dollars} for the state’s prime prosecutor, however the junket doesn’t seem to violate state ethics regulation, supplied it may be linked indirectly to an official operate, in keeping with two attorneys I spoke with in regards to the journey.
A spokesperson for the lawyer common’s workplace stated touring to the match was not an official state journey.
Reyes’ marketing campaign supervisor, Alan Crooks, instructed me that Qatar approached the Lawyer Common Alliance — a bipartisan group made up of greater than 46 state and territorial attorneys common — within the run-up to the World Cup, in search of recommendation on methods to handle considerations of human trafficking and cyber safety.
Reyes was a type of who helped, taking part in conferences in-person and through Zoom with representatives from Qatar’s authorities. The lawyer common was invited out to attend the soccer match to see the outcomes of the work, Crooks stated.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Robert Gehrke.
Reyes left for Qatar on the Wednesday earlier than Thanksgiving, attended the sport on Friday, and returned again late Sunday evening. With no less than 18 hours of journey every manner, he wasn’t within the nation for lengthy, however did meet with a number of the Qatar officers he had labored with earlier than, Crooks stated.
The federal government of Qatar paid for Reyes’ journey and lodging and ticket to the match at Al Bayt Stadium by means of the AGA, Crooks defined, however stated Reyes paid for his spouse, Saysha’s, airfare.
How a lot of what Reyes shared about addressing human trafficking and what really was put into use in Qatar is an open query. Qatar has been below intense scrutiny for the cruel therapy of international staff who toiled in oppressive warmth and poor circumstances for very low wages to construct the stadiums that hosted the World Cup.
Underneath a system referred to as kafala, migrant staff are primarily certain to their sponsored employer and are unable to go away for higher wages or return dwelling. Qatar did away with the kafala system in 2020, in keeping with the Guardian, a decade after the Center Japanese nation was awarded the World Cup by FIFA.
A 2021 investigation by The Guardian estimated some 6,500 international staff died within the 10-year run-up to the World Cup. In an interview with Piers Morgan this week, Hassan al-Thawadi, a Qatari official who has helped manage the World Cup, estimated that between 400 and 500 laborers died whereas engaged on building tasks associated to the soccer match.
“I do know it’s a really delicate and sensitive factor. It’s a must to be very cautious the way you deal with that,” Crooks stated. “[Reyes] is conscious of it and clearly he disagrees with [the treatment of workers]. He’s making an attempt to open up relations with that. And clearly, they had been happy with their interactions with him.”