American in Qatar Prison

My brother, John Wesley Downs, a 53 year old American Geologist has been imprisoned in Qatar for nearly 4 years, sentenced to life in prison for alleged espionage and barely escaping the death penalty.  We are outraged with the injustice of this condemnation and the sentence that far outweighs the severity of the attempted scheme. Having just returned from Qatar, seeing my brother isolated 7000 miles from his family and feeling the hopelessness of the situation, we believe that the time has arrived to pursue attention from the media and Human Rights Organizations. Three reasons we think this would be of benefit to us:

 

1.       The successful outcome of the very similar case of Roxana Saberi in Iran with the support of Secretary Clinton and the State Department.

2.       Qatar Petroleum’s recent partnership with an American Oil Company may open a window of opportunity to a civil suit with evidence we may have.

3.       The possibility of reaching a party interested in a book deal, as much of it has already been written by John.  

 

John, while working for Qatar Petroleum offered to sell oil well information to another country through an email, but no crime was actually committed. He was imprisoned in solitary confinement for 17 months, denied phone calls, writing material, and subjected to a top secret criminal trial conducted solely in Arabic, with family members, friends, and the American embassy banned from attending. Mr. Mana Nasser,  John’s court approved Qatari National attorney, speaking little English, had his first meeting with John in April 2006, 8 months after his arrest. Two of the three judge panel voted for the death penalty but the third allowed a life sentence to be passed.

 

 Very little of this story has been in the media as the trial in Qatar was top secret, our American State Department advised us against contacting the press as it “would likely harden the Qataris' position on the sentence”, and we (my brother and our extended family) were hesitant to do anything that might offend the Qatari officials. After the initial sentencing in Feb 2007 (life in prison) and the result of the appeal in Nov 2007 (no change in sentence), we are now attempting to obtain a pardon from the Amir of Qatar,  His Highness Sheikh Hamid bin Khalifa Al Thani.

 

John comes from a large family that has mostly stayed in the southern states of Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. We are close family but have no experience in politics, foreign governments, trials or law enforcement. Our belief that John, however foolish his actions of contacting a foreign government were, did no harm to the country of Qatar and deserves a second chance to live the remainder of his life within the confines of his children and family.

 

Please visit  www.johnwdowns.com for more information and read letters from co-workers, family and friends. This soft-spoken man, son of two American WWll Veterans, has three children who desperately need him and are fighting for his freedom. We are looking for guidance and advice concerning public relations, working with the media to get our story out and generate public awareness, as well as help dealing with political officials here in the US and Qatar. Thank you very much for your time and I look forward to hearing whether or not you think your company can play a role. Please call or email anytime.

 

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Julie Downs Van Woy

<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = SKYPE />              479-244-5409       

lookout@ipa.net

 

Following is a letter I sent to US Ambassador LeBaron in Qatar through our attorney, Mr. Gebron Majdalany in Doha.

 

 

Julie Van Woy

12 Lookout Circle

Eureka Springs, AR 72632 USA

 

May 14, 2009

 

 

Embassy of the United States of America
22nd February Street
Al-Luqta district
Doha, Qatar

 

 

Dear Ambassador LeBaron,

 

There are probably better ways to approach our government in asking for help but our family is quite at the end of our patience and our concern for John Downs’ well-being is growing daily. We feel we have run out of the ‘diplomatic’ channels to press for assistance, particularly now that there is a clear precedent with respect to our Government’s efforts to secure the release of a US citizen from Iranian custody under a set of circumstances far more serious and substantive than those attributable to John’s situation. Our Founding Fathers made important declarations in our Constitution about the equality and rights of ALL American citizens…unalienable rights regardless of the ‘politics’. In spite of the many times we have heard from the US Embassy that it supports the fairness of Qatar’s charges, trial, and condemnation of John, this seems contrary to the claims by John’s legal representatives that he was DENIED a fair trial. You must look closely at the scale between what he attempted to do and the volume of punishment that he was handed. Were he a danger to others or committed multiple crimes, even his family would have to agree somewhat with the outcome, but this is a good American man that tried to make a few bucks inappropriately but with no real intent to follow through and was punished far beyond a reasonable extent because he did it in a country that feels great power in having a citizen from the United States behind bars.

 

What about the Qatari terrorist that was release from Guantanamo and handed back to Qatar?? How does the State Department reconcile such clearly discriminatory practices for REAL crimes versus John’s inept attempts to thumb his nose with actions clearly not a threat to anyone nor the State of Qatar. Four years later there is still no damage to the State of Qatar and there never will be because the alleged consequence put forward by Al-Attiyah at the trial from what I have read, were clearly fabricated and out of all believable proportion.

 

It is unconscionable and an affront to the Constitution of the United States that the US Government will allow fabricated evidence against ANY of its citizens and stand by while foreign governments torture and allow them to rot in hell holes of dictatorships where freedom remains in bondage. I thought America went to war in Iraq and elsewhere based on “Freedom”…was this sincere or just a pretense to exercise military might for the oil lobby. Is John just ‘collateral damage’ in the geopolitics of oil and weaponry because if this had happened in Iran, he would be home by now and not a casualty of politics.

 

Does it not concern you that there is a claim of espionage against this man with no evidence and that he will spend the rest of his life in a prison 7000 miles from his family? This is our brother, father, son, cousin; this man made a mistake, he did not hurt anyone. You have stated repeatedly that the trial was followed closely by the embassy and there was nothing out of context and this would seem NOT to be supportable under a thorough investigation. How can this be true when the hearings were closed and secret to even John’s closest allies, his family. To this day we have yet to see any ‘evidence’ and we believe that he was prosecuted mostly out of spite. It may be time for a Congressional investigation into the incarceration of Americans abroad and have the State Department put on the stand to explain their actions.

 

John is a 54 year old man in his 4th year of imprisonment in the middle of a desert in Qatar. Two of his three children have been fortunate enough to be able to visit him for short periods of time each year. The third child, Thomas, has not seen his father since his arrest in August 2005. John knows that his children have no income, their mother is ill, estranged from them, and unable to provide income or parenting. When his mail is held up for six months at a time he is unable to offer simple words of comfort that his children so desperately need or a few words of advice that a child would benefit from.  John being the only English speaking Westerner in the prison, he is immersed in a completely foreign atmosphere, absolutely no support system to help him combat loneliness, fear, and the unfamiliar. 

 

Another denial under the Constitution regarding freedom of religion; John is not able to practice his Christian religion properly, there are no church services, no celebration of our religious holidays, no communion, confession, comfort and guidance of a priest and church family. He is surrounded by men with whom he has nothing in common, work ethics, family values, religious beliefs; he is isolated. Our State Department simply must make the move to work with Qatar in transferring John to the States.

 

You suggest that we submit our package of letters to the Qatari officials on an annual base and that most Westerners are released after serving only half of their sentence. Half of life? Is that a joke? Of course, we will continue with the alternate avenues, letters asking for a pardon, asking our congressmen to help and support, increasing media attention, etc. but these are extremely slow and probably ineffective methods of gaining John’s freedom for a crime that he has more than paid for.

 

Our Qatari attorney, Mr. Majdalany, has convinced us that Qatar will likely transfer John to the United States without a permanent prisoner transfer treaty as long as there is assurance from our government in the form of a letter, that John will serve his life sentence in the US. This is a condition that John and his family accept. John’s case is unique as he is the only American serving a life sentence in Qatar. It is ridiculous to attempt to set up a treaty for future cases at the expense of this man as John will not survive the years of government red tape. A treaty, if desired by our government, must be independent of this man’s transfer. We ask that the State Department write this letter for us as a humanitarian gesture.

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Julie Van Woy and family of John Downs