Qatar Releases Gay Man Caught in Grindr “Honeytrap”
Qatari authorities convicted Manuel Guerrero of drug possession after using a fake Grindr profile to lure him into an in-person meeting.
A gay British-Mexican citizen who was jailed in Qatar after being caught in a Grindr entrapment scheme has been released from prison.
Manuel Guerrero Aviña’s ordeal began in February 2024, when the 44-year Qatar Airlines manager was caught in a “honeytrap operation” being run by Qatari police.
According to his family, police used a false Grindr profile to contact Guerrero and invite him to participate in a meeting with other people from the LGBTQ community in the city of Doha. On February 4, he invited the person with whom he’d been chatting over his apartment in Doha, only to be met in the lobby by police officers, who detained him.
Police claimed that Guerrero had been in possession of methamphetamine, and sought to prosecute him under the country’s laws prohibiting drug use. Guerrero’s family has consistently claimed, since his arrest, that the methamphetamine was planted on him and that he was “pressured” into confessing to the possession charges. They claim he was subjected to torture while in police custody, as reported by the British newspaper The Mirror.
At a hearing in June, Guerrero was found guilty of possessing an illegal substance, was fined 2,100 euros ($2,307), and was sentenced to a six-month suspended sentence and deportation.
However, he remained in custody while he appealed the ruling, which was rejected the following month.
Yesterday, on August 14, Guerrero was released and left the country.
The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the BBC that British and Mexican diplomatic staff, who had advocated for Guerrero’s release, accompanied him to the airport, where he boarded a flight back to the United Kingdom.
A statement posted on X by the Manuel Guerrero Committee, which also advocated for his release, said that Guerrero was traveling to the United Kingdom, where he’d receive the HIV treatments he was denied while in custody. He will remain in the United Kingdom for a few days before heading back to Mexico.
Manuel is now flying free and dignified to London.
We thank everyone for their tireless support in this struggle for justice, there is no doubt: “Solidarity is the tenderness of peoples”. https://t.co/jlMDSXL1fL pic.twitter.com/A7Ob83BCmK
— #QatarMustFreeManuel (@QatarFreeManuel) August 12, 2024
The committee celebrated Guerrero’s release from the “claws of the homophobic state of Qatar,” thanking not only Mexican and British government officials but the wider LGBTQ community for their support.
“Manuel and his family thank you for your tireless support in this emblematic struggle against injustice, against homophobia and in favor of human rights for all people,” the committee said.
James Lynch, the co-director of FairSquare and a former British diplomat in Qatar, called Guerrero’s experience a “horrendous ordeal.”
“I don’t underestimate how much of a toll this experience will have taken on him,” Lynch told the BBC. “Amongst other things, he went through a terribly unfair trial that UN experts have raised serious concerns about, and was deprived of his HIV medication in prison. I hope he can find time and space in the coming weeks and months for rest and recovery.”
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