More witnesses added to lawsuit detailing Qatari Sheikh’s murderous lifestyle

Above, former employee Matthew Pittard, left, with Sheikh Khaled bin Hamad bin Abdullah Al-Thani. (Supplied file photo)
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Updated 17 June 2020
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More witnesses added to lawsuit detailing Qatari Sheikh’s murderous lifestyle

  • Six former employees of Sheikh Khaled provide frightening testimony into the violent underworld of the playboy race driver’s life of drugs, sexual perversions and violence

CHICAGO: Four additional witnesses have been added to a lawsuit accusing Qatari Sheikh Khaled bin Hamad Al-Thani of overseeing an ongoing conspiracy of violence that includes the murder of employee assigned to his wife, and plots to murder six other rivals.

In the lawsuit, six former employees of Sheikh Khaled, the brother of Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, provide frightening testimony into the violent underworld of the playboy race driver’s life of drugs, sexual perversions and violence.

The six former employees are demanding unpaid wages, emotional distress, punitive damages, attorney fees and sanctions to prohibit retaliation and harassment.They are suing under the US Fair Labor Standards Act and the Federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organization Act), which is usually used to target mobsters and street gangs.

One of the new plaintiffs, Terry Hope, said he witnessed Sheikh Khaled beat to death an Indian national who was employed as his wife’s driver because the victim was late in picking her up after a Doha shopping spree.

The alleged killing took place near the wife’s residence in a desert area near Doha reserved for the Al-Thani royal family’s private compounds.

The unnamed Indian male was buried in the desert behind the home with assistance from Qatar’s Royal Amiri Guard, according to the lawsuit.

Florida Attorney Rebecca Castaneda, who filed the lawsuit, said Sheikh Khaled “created an environment of hostility, falsely imprisoned employees, caused personal injury, assaulted and battered employees, inflicted emotional distress, engaged in retaliation, and intentionally interfered in business relationships.”

The original lawsuit was filed on July 23, 2019, on behalf of two employees, Matthew Pittard and Matthew Allende.

But Sheikh Khaled, a bigshot in the American race car industry, avoided being served, a requirement in US law.

On Jan. 2, 2020, Al-Anabi Racing USA LLC lawyers filed a motion on behalf of Sheikh Khaled, the owner, to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that it was filed in the wrong federal jurisdiction, Florida, where Pittard lives.

Castaneda withdrew the lawsuit on Jan. 27 but refiled an expanded one in Boston’s Federal District Court, where Al-Anabi Racing and other racing subsidiaries owned by Sheikh Khaled are registered.

In addition to Pittard, Allende and Hope, the lawsuit includes testimony from former employees Robert Von Smith, Jason Mollenbrink and Ramez Tohme. All are American citizens.

In addition to naming Sheikh Khaled and 16 of his aliases, the lawsuit names 29 subsidiaries or “alter egos” of Al-Anabi Racing, and its President and CEO Donald Greenbaum, as defendants.

Greenbaum began working with the Al-Thani royal family providing export and import services. In 2007, the lawsuit states, he supervised the creation of Sheikh Khaled’s racing empire, organized racing teams and supervised racing in competitions that include the National Hot Rod Association.

According to the lawsuit, Sheikh Khaled and Al-Anabi Racing used monies controlled by the Qatar Olympic Committee and Ministry of Sports to pay for their growing stable of drivers and employees, and to purchase personal high-price vehicles including a Bugatti Veyron. The spending was allegedly approved by the Qatari government.

Al-Anabi Racing quickly expanded to compete in the Pro Modified Division in Dubai, the American Drag Racing League in Virginia and the Shakedown in Etown racing competition in New Jersey, winning several races but spending more than $10 million in its first three years.

The lawsuit says problems began when Sheikh Khaled got greedy, refusing to pay his employees unless they committed criminal acts.

He ordered local police to arrest and jail Tohme for disobeying his orders. Tohme spent a night in jail but was released when an unnamed Qatari magistrate judge told him: “Ramez, don’t worry. We are all aware of Sheikh Khaled’s actions and the things he does. I will release you, but I don’t want to hear anything bad about my country.”

The lawsuit says Sheikh Khaled ordered Hope and Pittard to execute “eight separate murder for hire plots” as a condition of employment. Hope was told to kill the head of an American racing circuit and his wife “to prove his loyalty.”

The sheikh also allegedly ordered the killing of a Bahraini royal family member who raced in the same competitions.

In another case, Castaneda said he ordered Allende and Pittard to murder a Moroccan woman who was a friend of the sheikh’s wife.

Castaneda said Sheikh Khaled feared that the woman was feeding embarrassing information to a Saudi national at a time when his brother the emir and Qatar were in a row with Saudi Arabia and three other Arab countries.

In February 2011 and 2012, the lawsuit alleges, Sheikh Khaled tried to rig the outcome of the Arabian Drag Racing Leagues’ Battle of the Belts Championship, hoping to boost his company’s international rankings.

Castaneda says she believes Sheikh Khaled also ordered the brutal beating and rape of Allende’s girlfriend in her home in Pasadena, California, in February 2020, after the original lawsuit was withdrawn.

The lawsuit hints at Al-Thani family problems, detailing how Sheikh Khaled suspected his brother the emir of secretly bugging his racing offices.

Sheikh Khaled allegedly ordered employees to hack the email accounts of several family members including his brother, the deputy emir of Qatar, and the accounts of a Bahraini race driver, a member of the Dubai royal family and a deputy emir in Dubai.

Sources told Arab News that Sheikh Khaled has been ordered to maintain a low profile due to publicity over the lawsuit, and he is restricted to a royal family beach house in Qatar.

Read the court filing:


Doctor at Brown University deported to Lebanon despite US judge’s order

Dr. Rasha Alawieh. (Supplied)
Updated 5 sec ago
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Doctor at Brown University deported to Lebanon despite US judge’s order

  • While in Lebanon, the US consulate issued Alawieh an H-1B visa authorizing her entry into the United States to work at Brown University, the lawsuit said. Such visas are reserved for people from other countries who are employed in specialty occupations
  • Alawieh, a Lebanese citizen who lives in Providence, was detained on Thursday after arriving at Logan International Airport in Boston after traveling to Lebanon to see relatives, according to a lawsuit filed by her cousin, Yara Chehab

BOSTON, March 16 : A Rhode Island doctor who is an assistant professor at Brown University’s medical school has been deported to Lebanon even though a judge had issued an order blocking the US visa holder’s immediate removal from the country, according to court papers.
The expulsion of Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, is set to be the focus of a hearing on Monday before a federal judge in Boston, who on Sunday demanded information on whether US Customs and Border Protection had “willfully” disobeyed his order.
US District Judge Leo Sorokin, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, said he had received a “detailed and specific” timeline of the events from an attorney working on Alawieh’s behalf that raised “serious allegations” about whether his order was violated.
The agency has not said why she was removed. But her expulsion came as Republican US President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to sharply restrict border crossing and ramp up immigration arrests.
A CBP spokesperson, Hilton Beckham, in a statement said migrants bear the burden of establishing admissibility and that the agency’s officers “adhere to strict protocols to identify and stop threats.”
Alawieh, a Lebanese citizen who lives in Providence, was detained on Thursday after arriving at Logan International Airport in Boston after traveling to Lebanon to see relatives, according to a lawsuit filed by her cousin, Yara Chehab.
She had held a visa to be in the United States since 2018, when she first came to complete a two-year fellowship at Ohio State University before then completing a fellowship at the University of Washington and then moving to the Yale-Waterbury Internal Medicine Program, which she completed in June.
While in Lebanon, the US consulate issued Alawieh an H-1B visa authorizing her entry into the United States to work at Brown University, the lawsuit said. Such visas are reserved for people from other countries who are employed in specialty occupations.
Despite that visa, CBP detained her at the airport for reasons her family members have still not been provided, according to the lawsuit, which argued her rights were being violated.
In response to the lawsuit, Sorokin on Friday evening issued orders barring Alawieh’s removal from Massachusetts without 48 hours’ notice to the court and requiring her to be brought to a court hearing on Monday.
Yet according to the cousin’s attorneys, after that order was issued, Alawieh was flown to Paris, where she was then set to board a flight for Lebanon that had been scheduled for Sunday.
Sorokin on Sunday directed the government to provide a legal and factual response by Monday morning ahead of the previously scheduled hearing and to preserve all emails, text messages and other documents concerning Alawieh’s arrival and removal.
Concerns have also been raised in other cases about whether the Trump administration is complying with court rulings blocking parts of its agenda.
The Trump administration on Sunday said it has deported
hundreds of Venezuelans
to El Salvador under seldom-used wartime powers, despite a federal judge’s order temporarily barring such deportations.

 

 


Sudanese police accuse RSF paramilitaries after 11 bodies found at bottom of a well in Khartoum

Updated 14 min 4 sec ago
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Sudanese police accuse RSF paramilitaries after 11 bodies found at bottom of a well in Khartoum

  • The bodies of 11 people were recovered Saturday from the deep well in the Fayhaa neighborhood of the city
  • Police say the victims were killed by paramilitary by the paramilitary RSF when itwas controlling the area

CAIRO: Sudanese authorities said Sunday many bodies have been found at the bottom of a well in the capital, Khartoum, a few days after the military cleared the area from a notorious paramilitary group.
The bodies of 11 people, including women and children, were recovered Saturday from the deep well in the Fayhaa neighborhood of the city, according to police.
Col. Abdul-Rahanan Mohamed Hassan, head of the civil defense’s field team in Khartoum, said a search of the the area was mounted after residents reported that they found a dead body in the well.
“We found inside this well different characters (bodies), males and females, adults and children,” Hassan said, adding that authorities were still searching the well.
Police say the victims were killed by the Rapid Support Forces before being thrown into the well when the paramilitary force was controlling the area. The military retook the area earlier this month as part of its sweeping advances in Khartoum and its sister city of Omdurman.
There was no immediate comment from the RSF.
Afraa Al-Hajj Omar, a resident of the nearby Hajj Youssef neighborhood, said that the RSF killed many people in the area and their bodies were left for days in the streets. She said many bodies were thrown in the well. “They robbed us, beat us, and tortured us,” she said.
Sudan was plunged into chaos in April 2023 when simmering tensions between the military and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into open warfare across the country.
At least 20,000 people have been killed, though the number is likely far higher. The war has driven more than 14 million people from their homes and pushed parts of the country into famine.
The fighting, which wrecked Khartoum and other urban areas has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in the western region of Darfur, according to the United Nations and international rights groups.
The war has intensified in recent months, with the military making steady advances against the RSF in Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.


Syria’s new rulers seek aid boost at EU conference

Updated 21 min 19 sec ago
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Syria’s new rulers seek aid boost at EU conference

  • Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shibani is expected to take part in the event, along with dozens of European and Arab ministers and representatives of international organizations

BRUSSELS: The interim government in Damascus will take part on Monday in an annual international conference to gather aid pledges for Syria, facing dire humanitarian problems and an uncertain political transition after the fall of Bashar Assad.
The conference has been hosted by the European Union in Brussels since 2017 — but took place without the government of Assad, who was shunned for his brutal actions in a civil war that began in 2011.
After Assad’s overthrow in December, EU officials hope to use the conference as a fresh start, despite concerns about deadly violence this month that pitted the new, Islamist rulers against Assad loyalists.
“This is a time of dire needs and challenges for Syria, as tragically evidenced by the recent wave of violence in coastal areas,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.
But she said it was also “a time of hope,” citing an agreement struck on March 10 to integrate the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which control much of Syria’s northeast, into new state institutions.
Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the group that toppled Assad, is designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations. But EU officials want to engage with the new rulers as long as they stick to pledges to make the transition inclusive and peaceful.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shibani is expected to take part in the event, along with dozens of European and Arab ministers and representatives of international organizations.
EU officials say the conference is particularly important as the United States under President Donald Trump is making huge cutbacks to humanitarian and development aid programs.
Last year’s conference yielded pledges of 7.5 billion euros ($8.1 billion) in grants and loans, with the EU pledging 2.12 billion for 2024 and 2025.
About 16.5 million people in Syria require humanitarian assistance, with 12.9 million people needing food aid, according to the EU.
The destruction from the war has been compounded by an economic crisis that has sent the Syrian pound tumbling and pushed almost the entire population below the poverty line. ($1 = 0.9192 euros)

 


Families of Syrians who disappeared during its civil war say the search must go on

Updated 51 min 21 sec ago
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Families of Syrians who disappeared during its civil war say the search must go on

  • A United Nations-backed commission on Friday urged the interim government led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa to preserve evidence and anything they can document from prisons in the ongoing search for the disappeared

DARAA, Syria: Family members of Syrians who disappeared in the country’s 14-year civil war gathered in the city of Daraa on Sunday to urge the newly installed interim government to not give up on efforts to find them.
The United Nations in 2021 estimated that over 130,000 Syrians were taken away and disappeared during the war, many of them detained by former President Bashar Assad’s network of intelligence agencies as well as by opposition fighters and the extremist Daesh group. Advocacy group The Syrian Campaign says some 112,000 are still missing.
When rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham overthrew Assad in December, they stormed prisons and released detainees from the ousted government’s dungeons. Families of the missing quickly rushed to the prisons seeking their loved ones. While there were some reunions, rescue services also discovered mass graves around the country and used whatever remains they could retrieve to identify the dead.

Family members hold pictures of their relatives who disappeared in the nearly 14-year Syrian civil war, during a protest calling on the interim government to not give up on efforts to find them, in the city of Daraa, Syria, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP)

On Sunday, the 14th anniversary of the countrywide uprisings that spiraled into civil war, Wafa Mustafa held a placard of her father, Ali, who was detained by the Assad government’s security forces in 2013. She fled a week later to Germany, fearing she would also be detained, and hasn’t heard from him since.
Like many other Syrians who fled the conflict or went into exile for their activism, she often held protests and rallied in European cities. Now, she has returned twice since Assad’s ouster, trying to figure out her father’s whereabouts.
“I’m trying, feeling both hope and despair, to find any answer on the fate of my father,” she said. “I searched inside the prisons, the morgues, the hospitals, and through the bodies of the martyrs, but I still couldn’t find anything.”
A United Nations-backed commission on Friday urged the interim government led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa to preserve evidence and anything they can document from prisons in the ongoing search for the disappeared. The commission also urged the new government to pursue perpetrators.
Some foreign nationals are missing in Syria as well, notably American journalist Austin Tice, whose mother visited Syria in January and met with Al-Sharaa. Tice has not been heard from other than a video released weeks after his disappearance in 2012 that showed him blindfolded and held by armed men.
Syria’s civil war began after Assad crushed largely peaceful protests in 2011, one of the popular uprisings against Arab rulers known as the Arab Spring. Half a million people were killed during the conflict, and more than 5 million left the country as refugees.
 

 


Yemen rebel leader calls for ‘million-strong’ rally after deadly US strikes

Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Houthis, during a televised speech on the group's Al-Masirah TV channel (Screengrab
Updated 17 March 2025
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Yemen rebel leader calls for ‘million-strong’ rally after deadly US strikes

  • The Houthis have repeatedly targeted international shipping in the Red Sea, sinking two vessels, in what they call acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally
  • US officials on Sunday vowed further strikes until the Houthis stop attacking Red Sea shipping

SANAA: The leader of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Sunday called for a “million-strong” march of defiance after deadly US strikes hit the capital, Sanaa, and other areas.
“I call on our dear people to go out tomorrow on the anniversary of the Battle of Badr in a million-strong march in Sanaa and the rest of the governorates,” Abdulmalik Al-Houthi said in a televised address, referring to a celebrated military victory by the Prophet Muhammad.