Foreign Nationals on Death Row The execution of Nepali national Anil Chaudhary in 2020 highlighted potential discriminatory practices within Qatar's legal system. Originally from Aurahi, a village in Nepal's Mahottari district, he had moved to Qatar in 2015 to work as a labourer at a car wash. Chaudhary, who was sentenced to death in December 2017 for the murder of a Qatari national, was executed by ring squad in May 2020. His embassy was only informed of his impending execution the day before, leaving little opportunity for effective assistance during the nal stages of the judicial process. His case highlights a key bias against foreign nationals in Qatar's death penalty system, linked to the Islamic practice of diyya or 'blood money’: the victim's family declined to accept compensation, and so Chaudhary could not resort to the practice, highlighting a frequent predicament for migrant workers who may also lack the means to afford such a payment. The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty reported that at the time of Chaudhary's execution, ten other Nepalese nationals were imprisoned for murder, some of whom had been sentenced to death. However, all of their victims were Nepalese, suggesting that migrant workers may be more likely to be sentenced to death and executed if the victim is a Qatari national, as opposed to a non-citizen. It also remains unclear whether the sentencing authorities took into account the potential exploitation and abuse that migrant workers often face under the kafala system. In the lead-up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Qatar has been under the global spotlight. Qatar has the world's highest ratio of migrants to citizens, with migrant workers making up 94% of the workforce and 86% of the total population. These workers, mainly from Nepal, India and Bangladesh, are a transient population and often face an exploitative environment. A report by the DPRU in 2022 revealed that between 2016 and 2021, at least 21 people were sentenced to death in Qatar. The vast majority of these cases involved foreign nationals, with only three cases involving Qatari national defendants. The remaining 18 death sentences included seven Indians, two Nepalese, ve Bangladeshis, one Tunisian and three Asians of unspeci ed nationality. Most of these were murder convictions, with one sentence for drug traf cking. The majority of homicide cases involved male South Asian migrant workers convicted of crimes related to their work environment. fi fi fi fi fi 2