Qatar authorities will soon be able to hold a person “suspected of posing a grave threat to society” for up to three years without trial, according to an Interior Ministry proposal.

Despite strong objection from the Advisory Council, the ministry says the change is necessary, given Qatar’s multi-cultural society and the need for deterrence. 

The Peninsula reports:

The existing law that seeks to ensure social peace and stability and prescribes severe punishment for those found violating it, authorises the state to make preventive arrest of a suspect for two weeks without trial with the period extendable up to a maximum of six months.

The Interior Ministry has, through an amendment, suggested that the period of two weeks be extended to 30 days and the six months’ maximum preventive arrest period be stretched up to two years.

The amendment says that the detention can be extended to another year with approval from the Prime Minister.

This means that if the proposed amendments are approved, a suspect under the societal protection law can be kept in preventive detention for three years in a row without charges being filed against him.

Read the full article here. And tell us what you think.