Breaking News:

QATAR Airways Board Members Loot $9billion (QAR 33.3 billion) in Six Years  – ALTHANI HUMAN Rights, fiery civil rights group in Middle East

…dares Akbar Al Baker, Chief Executive Officer to account for stewardship openly

*Links ‘accrued’ debt claim to Mismanagement, Exploitation, Corruption 

*Alleges $4million shared around social media giants worldwide to curb dispute with Europe’s Airbus, pose series of questions for directors to answer

*Argues Qatar Airways discard Qatar Aviation Authorities concern to obtain a renowned third party to carry out comprehensive inspection, provide technical cause backed by testing and evaluation

*BY AMINU MOHAMMED/AVIATION Editor, Middle East & GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU/AMERICAN Senior Investigative Editor

QATAR AIRWAYS is facing a backlash and the directors of the airline have been exposed for allegedly squandering and looting a princely sum of QAR 33.3 billion (US$ 9 billion) from 2015 till 2021 hidden under ‘losses’ or ‘accrued debt’ whereas the management live extravagant lifestyle at every turn of the way.

Making this allegation, ALTHANI HUMAN Rights, a leading civil rights group in the Middle East raised many posers to the Board and Management of Qatar Airways, yet received no response. 

In a letter written to Akbar Al Baker, Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Airways, the human rights body document read: “A reminder to our recent correspondence to you, whereby we have indicated that Qatar Airways has been unable to justify for the past many years to the citizens of the State of Qatar as to what are the main reasons that caused the state-owned airline to accumulate such substantial amount of total loss of QAR 33.3 billion (US$ 9 billion) losses from 2015 till 2021. 

The letter read that “losses are not caused by the ongoing claims against ‘Airbus’, but in fact these unexplainable losses are related to mismanagement, exploitation of public roles, and corruption processes within the authorities in Qatar Airways.

 “In our previous letter, we have asked the following questions that the citizens of the State of Qatar and the world as well, are keen to have the answers to. We would appreciate receiving an answer to this. We would like to know how Qatar Airways and its authorities are able to spiral a $4 million-a-day dispute with Europe’s Airbus on social media around the world without being classified as an exploitation of media platforms?

 Qatar Airways truly expressed concerns that were raised by Qatar Aviation Authorities. It asked why hasn’t the aviation authority obtained a worldwide renowned third party to carry out the inspection and to provide technical cause that is backed by third party testing, evaluation, and confirmation that such jets do indeed cause a concern for safety?

Further questions raised in Althani Rights Group to the Board and Directors are below:

 “Third question, are the losses that have accumulated on Qatar Airways truly related to the grounded planes, if yes, then can Qatar Airways justify the total loss of QAR 33.3 billion (US$ 9 billion) losses accumulated from 2015 till 2021?

“Fourth questions, are these ulterior motives initiated from the true concern of Qatar Airways for its passengers, if so, has Qatar Airways obtained relevant and substantiated evidence to prove that such defects do cause safety concerns on the plane or not, or was the ulterior motive to cancel the agreement with Airbus under any circumstances, which comes with the recent political row that has unveiled between Qatar and French authorities, which conveniently enough comes as a solution to please the US Authorities by signing an agreement with Boeing for US$ 20 billion?

” Do Qatar Airways support the right of everyone to express their opinions, and does Qatar Airways acknowledge that media platforms are available to facilitate such expression of opinion, if yes, then why is it applied on selective basis, and if not, what criteria differentiates who obtains such privilege than others?

 “Qatar Airways authorities have not responded to any of these questions or provided clarifications as to why the national carrier has been under extensive lost for over a decade, and why state’s funds have been wasted for years.

 “Qatar Airways Authorities and Management have demonstrated that they are unable to maintain and protect expended state funds, and that the authorities and management have caused the national carrier to be entrenched in debts to its suppliers.

 “In Parallel to such financially imposed losses on the national carrier, its “doubtful” management is concluding further deals in billions of dollars with other suppliers, obligating further debts on the state owned national carrier, alternatively such debts is inflicted on the citizens of the State.

 “Given to the above facts, and to the unresponsiveness of Qatar Airways management, we call on all citizens to requests an immediate investigation to be carried out against all management and authorities in charge of the national carrier’s affairs, and to verify these individuals personal financial gains over the past 15 years, financial benefits obtained through exploitation of the national carrier. Further investigation should propagate into the close family and relatives of these individuals and to determine their source of funding for all assets and properties they have purchased locally and abroad.

 “Whereas, such impounded losses of billions of USD Dollars is due to mismanagement, exploitation and corruption, and the individuals in charge should be accountable for all their actions.

 “The process of pinning the losses on others, such as Airbus or other relevant suppliers, although these suppliers have also extended credits to the national carrier in billions, indicates that the management and authorities at Qatar Airways are seeking to find a scapegoat that will relieve them from being accountable for their actions.”

 On final request, Althani Human Rights said: “We ask the management and authorities of Qatar Airways to publicly disclose the main reason for all these losses and to take the responsibility in stopping the internal corruption that will inevitably cause the national carrier to lose further billions.”

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