Who is 'thief of Doha', the original owner of $400M jet to be gifted to Donald Trump?
Amid a major row over President Donald Trump possibly getting a $400 million Boeing Jet from Qatar as a gift, it has now been revealed that the
Qatari jet
has been sitting unsold for years since 2020 and Qatar now wants to dump it.
The aircraft originally belonged to former prime minister
Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani
, also known as
HBJ
. These initials are still there in the jet's tail number. The sheikh has been embroiled in a $20 million legal dispute over a string of luxury hotels, the New York Post reported.
The former PM has been branded as the 'thief of Doha' by a Washington think tank after the DOJ accused him of presiding over bribery and corruption when he brought 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
HBJ has a lot of controversies and lawsuits apart from the corruption allegations. He made an antisemitic tirade in an interview last year as he said, "Imagine oil was sold by some Jews … what would be the price of a barrel oil? It would be the most expensive thing in the world,'
HBJ served as Prime Minister from April 3, 2007, to June 26, 2013, during the reign of Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. He stepped down as Prime Minister on June 26, 2013, one day after Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani abdicated in favor of his son, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
by Taboola
by Taboola
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Undo
Before that, HBJ was Qatar's Foreign Minister for over two decades, from 1992 to 2013
Trump's Qatar visit is the second destination of his Gulf tour, after a first stop in Riyadh, where he made a surprise announcement lifting sanctions on Syria and met the country's president. Qatar Airways had placed a "record" order for 160 planes from Boeing, its largest ever order for its wide-body jets.
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