Women win right to sue Qatar airways

[offshore171]

Many will remember the incident where several completely innocent female passengers were dragged off a Qatar airways flight and subjected to horrific cavity searches.

There's been a development. A group of Australian women from that cohort have had a major victory in court, winning the right to sue the airline. The full bench of the federal court overturned an earlier ruling.

An interesting angle is that they are invoking the Montreal Convention as their legal approach.

Women win the right to sue Qatar Airways over strip searches

Several Australian women allegedly forced to submit to invasive strip searches at Doha's Hamad airport have...

www.9news.com.au

Australian women win right to sue Qatar Airways over invasive searches

The women who were strip-searched and invasively examined after a baby was found at Doha airport in 2020.

www.bbc.com

 

[jakeseven7]

This is a small but good step towards Qatar being held accountable for their actions. I commend the parties for pursuing this,

Qatar Airways & MATAR also have been ordered to pay costs of the appeal I see.

I still can’t believe this happened. Abhorrent.

 

[Pushka]

This will be appreciated by the women concerned. Dreadful experience for them all.

 

[Aeryn]

Good to see common sense prevail; the actions taken by the parties involved were unreasonable, showed a total disrespect for women and thoroughly traumatizing for the victims.

 

[Ansett Nostalgic]

I would be surprised if this case doesn't settle.

 

[moa999]

Think part of the issue is that the group seem barred from suing the entity or group most responsible - and that's the Qatari security forces or Qatari state.

It would be the equivalent of suing Qantas and Sydney Airport over an unfair search conducted by the AFP.

 

[Himeno]

Think part of the issue is that the group seem barred from suing the entity or group most responsible - and that's the Qatari security forces or Qatari state.

It would be the equivalent of suing Qantas and Sydney Airport over an unfair search conducted by the AFP.

That's not the issue. As was gone over many times when this first happened, the people responsible were airport security and other airport workers.
The airport is operated by the airline. The people responsible were ultimately employees of Qatar Airways Group.

 

[jakeseven7]

I would be surprised if this case doesn't settle.

Well there has been a supreme effort by the parties involved to avoid anything to date apart, they will see settling as a huge loss of face (and probably could care less about the money let’s be honest).

They wanted it squashed and the story ‘disappeared’, ironically it’s going to light a fire under it and give it a whole other life as the case proceeds.

Certainly hope common sense prevails and they settle & come to an agreement which satisfies the women who were assaulted and goes someway to addressing what was done to them.

 

[RooFlyer]

Hamad International Airport (HIA) in Doha, Qatar, is owned and operated by the Qatar Company for Airports Management and Operation, which is a subsidiary of the Qatar Airways Group. The Qatar Airways Group is ultimately owned by the Qatari government.

Imagine before privatisation, when Qantas and Sydney and other airports were owned by the Commonwealth. Who'd be blamed for a sexual assault by the security forces at the airport?

What is the difference between Doha and Dubai.

I can guess.

 

[offshore171]

They wanted it squashed and the story ‘disappeared’, ironically it’s going to light a fire under it and give it a whole other life as the case proceeds.

Streisand Effect.

I suspect Qatar will want to avoid further discovery in this case and will probably be well motivated to settle now.

Certainly hope common sense prevails and they settle

If it does go to trial, it will be interesting to see if it leads to any novel legal interpretations of the Montreal Convention.

 

[Happy Trails]

I still wonder what happened to the mother and baby.

 

[jakeseven7]

Streisand Effect.

I suspect Qatar will want to avoid further discovery in this case and will probably be well motivated to settle now.

100%. The intimate details are horrifying and will be broadcasted around the world in mainstream media on repeat…

As a commercial operation I agree they would be crazy not to settle.

However it’s got a significant cultural element to this one… who knows what they are thinking…

I still wonder what happened to the mother and baby.

Absolutely, terrifying the possibilities really, after what happened to the other women.

 

[RooFlyer]

Absolutely, terrifying the possibilities really, after what happened to the other women.

You think they would have harmed the baby?

 

[offshore171]

Go get em!

In some ways, I would like to see the women win this in court rather than take a settlement.

It would be a great step forward to have a court making a finding that there was a breach of the Montreal Convention. This would potentially have global ramifications.

As per the appeal judgement “Whether or not the claims come within the scope of (the Montreal Convention) is a matter of some complexity,”.

If it goes to trial, that is something that may be answered.

Somewhat different circumstances, but for those that recall the Dr Dao incident with United, his lawyers also used the Montreal Convention as their argument. It was settled before trial.

 

[offshore171]

Getting this back on topic, the successful argument from the appeal has been paraphrased as follows.

“If someone takes you off a plane at gunpoint but they leave your bags on the plane, they put you in an ambulance at the bottom of the stairs to the aircraft, you’re taken and strip searched and then they put you back on the plane, it’s clear your journey hasn’t ended,” Sturzaker said.

The women argue the airline behaved negligently, which would free up their capacity to argue for additional damages.

Strip search victims free to bring case against Qatar Airways

The full bench of the Federal Court says five Australian women are entitled to their day in court, but upheld a ruling that the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority is immune from foreign jurisdiction.

www.afr.com

 

[Princess Fiona]

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Thread locked for review
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[NM]

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Multiple post have been removed from this thread as being off-topic. The topic for this thread the recent court ruling reported in the openning posts of this thread. Other discussions, especially arguments that have already been covered in previous threads will also be removed and individual warnings issued to members.

Leaving this thread locked for period of further review by the moderation team.

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