Australian women win right to sue Qatar Airways after forced strip-searches
Women on 10 Qatar Airways flights, including 13 Australians, were subjected to invasive examinations to see if they had recently given birth after a newborn baby was found abandoned at Doha's Hamad Airport in October 2020.
The incident made headlines around the world, sparked outrage in Australia and strained diplomatic ties with Qatar.
A group of five women on a Sydney-bound flight launched legal proceedings in 2022 against Qatar Airways, the operator of Doha Airport MATAR, and Qatar's Civil Aviation Authority.
They brought claims under the Montreal Convention, which covers airline liability, as well as negligence, assault and false imprisonment.
The women sought damages for the impact on their mental health, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, stemming from the 'unlawful physical contact.'
After being escorted off their flight by armed Qatari authorities, some women claimed they were made to take off their underwear and subjected to non-consensual gynecological inspections by a nurse in ambulances on the tarmac.
Federal Court Justice John Halley dismissed the claims against Qatar Airways last year, finding they had no reasonable prospect of success, and that Qatar's Civil Aviation Authority amounted to a foreign state immune from Australian law.
On Thursday, the full Federal Court overturned the ruling on Qatar Airways saying the issue was too complex to be dismissed summarily.
'Whether or not the claims come within the scope of (the Montreal Convention) is a matter of some complexity,' the summary judgment said.
'It is therefore not an issue apt to be decided at the stage of summary dismissal.'
The judgement allows the women to continue their lawsuit against Qatar Airways and MATAR. Both companies were ordered to pay the costs of the appeal.
'Our clients endured a traumatic experience on that night in Doha, and they deserve to have their day in court and compensation for their suffering,' said Damian Sturzaker, the lawyer from Marque Lawyers representing the women.
'We will continue to support them as the case continues in the Federal Court.'
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Saudi Gazette
5 days ago
- Saudi Gazette
Five Australian women win right to sue Qatar Airways over invasive searches
SYDNEY — Five Australian women who were strip-searched and invasively examined at Doha airport have won the right to sue Qatar Airways after an appeal. The women were ordered off a flight and checked for whether they had given birth after a baby was found abandoned in an airport bin in 2020 — an incident that sparked global outrage. An Australian judge last year found the state-owned airline could not be prosecuted under the laws governing global travel, and said the proposition its staff could have intervened was "fanciful, trifling, implausible, improbable, [and] tenuous". The women appealed, with the full bench of the Federal Court finding the primary judge erred in throwing out the case. The five women filed a lawsuit in 2021, against Qatar Airways, Qatar's Civil Aviation Authority and the operators of Hamad International Airport, a firm called Matar. They sought damages over the alleged "unlawful physical contact" and false imprisonment, which had caused mental health impacts including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Other passengers who were invasively searched — including from the UK and New Zealand — were not part of the three respondents applied to have the case thrown out before it reached John Halley in April 2024 found that Qatar Airways could not be held responsible under a multilateral treaty called the Montreal Convention, which is used to establish airline liability in the event of death or injury to if the airline could be sued, the women's case had no real prospect of success, he said: Qatar Airways staff could not have influenced the actions of Qatari police who removed the women from the flight, nor the nurses who examined them in ambulances on the Halley also struck out the women's case against Qatar's aviation regulator, saying it was immune from foreign prosecution, but said they could proceed with parts of their case against Justice Angus Stewart, Justice Debra Mortimer and Justice James Stellios found the primary judge had made rulings on issues that could only be decided at upheld Justice Halley's decision to throw out the case against Qatar's aviation regulator, but said the complainants had the right to sue both Qatar Airways and case is now expected to continue to trial in the Federal Court, the women's lawyer Damian Sturzaker said."Our clients endured a traumatic experience on that night in Doha and they deserve to have their day in court and compensation for their suffering," Sturzaker said, according to The women have previously told the BBC they did not consent to the examinations and were not given explanations for what was happening to them."I felt like I had been raped," said British grandmother Mandy, who asked to withhold her said she thought she was being kidnapped and held Gulf state launched a criminal prosecution which led to a suspended jail term for an airport Sturzaker in 2021 told the BBC the women were suing because of a perceived lack of action from wanted a formal apology from Qatar and for the airport to change its procedures to make sure the incident does not happen again. — BBC
Al Arabiya
5 days ago
- Al Arabiya
Australian women win right to sue Qatar Airways after forced strip-searches
Five Australian women who say they were pulled from a Qatar Airways flight by armed guards and strip-searched have won the right to sue the airline, after a court on Thursday overturned an earlier decision to throw out the case. Women on 10 Qatar Airways flights, including 13 Australians, were subjected to invasive examinations to see if they had recently given birth after a newborn baby was found abandoned at Doha's Hamad Airport in October 2020. The incident made headlines around the world, sparked outrage in Australia and strained diplomatic ties with Qatar. A group of five women on a Sydney-bound flight launched legal proceedings in 2022 against Qatar Airways, the operator of Doha Airport MATAR, and Qatar's Civil Aviation Authority. They brought claims under the Montreal Convention, which covers airline liability, as well as negligence, assault and false imprisonment. The women sought damages for the impact on their mental health, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, stemming from the 'unlawful physical contact.' After being escorted off their flight by armed Qatari authorities, some women claimed they were made to take off their underwear and subjected to non-consensual gynecological inspections by a nurse in ambulances on the tarmac. Federal Court Justice John Halley dismissed the claims against Qatar Airways last year, finding they had no reasonable prospect of success, and that Qatar's Civil Aviation Authority amounted to a foreign state immune from Australian law. On Thursday, the full Federal Court overturned the ruling on Qatar Airways saying the issue was too complex to be dismissed summarily. 'Whether or not the claims come within the scope of (the Montreal Convention) is a matter of some complexity,' the summary judgment said. 'It is therefore not an issue apt to be decided at the stage of summary dismissal.' The judgement allows the women to continue their lawsuit against Qatar Airways and MATAR. Both companies were ordered to pay the costs of the appeal. 'Our clients endured a traumatic experience on that night in Doha, and they deserve to have their day in court and compensation for their suffering,' said Damian Sturzaker, the lawyer from Marque Lawyers representing the women. 'We will continue to support them as the case continues in the Federal Court.'
Al Arabiya
17-07-2025
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Judge OKs release plan for woman who stabbed a classmate to please Slender Man
A judge has approved a conditional release plan for a Wisconsin woman who nearly killed her classmate years ago to please the fictional horror character Slender Man. Waukesha County Circuit Judge Scott Wagner signed off Thursday on the plan to release Morgan Geyser, now 22, from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, a psychiatric hospital where she has spent the last seven years. In April, prosecutors objected to Geyser's original conditional release plan after the mother of the victim, Payton Leutner, expressed concern that Geyser's group home was located eight miles away from Leutner. The judge then ordered the Department of Health Services to draft a new plan, which was approved Thursday. Details of the plan were not shared in court. Geyser and her friend Anissa Weier lured Leutner to a Waukesha park after a sleepover in 2014. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier egged her on. All three girls were 12 years old at the time. Geyser and Weier fled after the attack but were arrested as they were walking on Interstate 94. They told investigators they attacked Leutner to earn the right to be Slender Man's servants and feared he would hurt their families if they didn't follow through. They had planned to walk to Slender Man's mansion in northern Wisconsin after the attack, they said. Leutner barely survived the attack. Geyser ultimately pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in 2017 but claimed she wasn't responsible because she was mentally ill. Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren committed her to a psychiatric hospital for 40 years in 2018, but the judge ruled in January she could be released after three experts testified she has made progress battling mental illness. State health officials argued in March that Geyser couldn't be trusted after learning that she hadn't told her therapists that she had read a novel about murder and black market organ sales. They also alleged that she had been communicating with a man who collects murder memorabilia and sent him her own sketch of a decapitated body and a postcard saying she wants to be intimate with him. Cotton countered that Geyser only read what the facility allowed and staff knew she had been communicating with the collector. He added that she stopped talking to the man in 2024 after she discovered he was selling things she sent him. Bohren concluded that Geyser wasn't trying to hide anything and ordered state health officials to continue developing a release plan. Wagner took over Geyser's release request after Bohren retired this past April. Weier pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted second-degree intentional homicide with a dangerous weapon in 2017 but, like Geyser, claimed she was mentally ill and not responsible for her actions. She was committed to 25 years in a mental hospital but was granted release in 2021 after agreeing to live with her father and to wear a GPS monitor. The case has drawn widespread attention in part because of the girls' fascination with the Slender Man character. Slender Man was created online by Eric Knudson in 2009 as a mysterious specter photo-edited into everyday images of children at play. He's typically depicted as a slim, spidery figure in a black suit with a featureless white face. He has grown into a popular boogeyman and has appeared in video games, online stories, and a 2018 movie.
