Lauren Holtmeier

DUBAI — The wife of detained Qatari Sheikh Talal Al-Thani has asked her husband be released as fears of coronavirus spreading through the prison intensify.

“For sure he is not safe, as I said before, and as it turned out, I was right,” Asma Arian, the imprisoned Qatari royal’s wife, said.

Arian, who lives in her native Germany, said that Sheikh Talal was diagnosed with diabetes and high blood pressure during his time in prison. Now, coronavirus could be a life-threatening complication if he were to become infected.

“A week ago it was 12 cases” in the prison. “How many others have these 12 infected with the virus,” asked Arian. “You cannot say that he is safe because the prison has coronavirus.”

Arian wed Sheikh Talal in 2007, and according to Arian, her husband was conned out of his inheritance and was ultimately thrown in jail for being unable to repay his debts.

According to Arian, the Qatari regime attempted to force Sheikh Talal to sign papers attesting to his insanity, but she managed to convince her husband not to, Al Arabiya English reported at the time.

In 2019, Arian said that the Qatari regime had deprived her and her children of their most basic human rights to get “revenge” on their jailed father.

Sheikh Talal, Rayan’s husband, is the grandson of Sheikh Ahmed Bin Ali Al-Thani, who was the Emir of Qatar from 1960 until 1972.

The late Sheikh Ahmad was deposed by his cousin Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad, who is the grandfather of Qatar’s current Emir Tamim Bin Hamad. — Al Arabiya English