DOHA: The Ministry of Interior has confirmed that a young British woman teacher was murdered here and that suspects have been taken into custody.
The case has been referred to the Public Prosecution which will conduct investigations and file charges in the criminal court.
Meanwhile, some people this newspaper spoke to on the issue said had the authorities concerned shared the necessary details about the murder, the incident would not have led to speculations.
And the international media would have in that case relied on factual details of the incident given by their Qatari counterpart.
A lack of official information kept the local media away from reporting the incident correctly, critics said.
There was no official confirmation of the reports of murder when they began surfacing on social media late last Sunday.
This newspaper contacted the Capital Police but they refused to either deny or confirm. An official at the police station said the Public Relations Department of the Interior Ministry should be contacted for information.
The British embassy’s call centre would also only confirm that Lauren Patterson, the victim, was missing. They said they had no information about her death.
This newspaper, therefore, chose not to carry the report with sketchy details and with no confirmation forthcoming from either the Qatari authorities or the British Embassy.
Meanwhile, as evidenced from public reaction in the local social media, people in the Qatari community seem to be extremely riled by reports of the murder in the global media.
Many of them said they felt Qatar was being wrongly targeted, and only because it was going to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022.
Such crimes are taking place everywhere in the world so why target Qatar alone, questioned many commentators. The Qatari media came in for scathing attack by social media commentators, some of whom, poking fun, said: “As usual we are hearing (of the murder) from foreign media”. “Our media were the last to know (of the news),” said a commentator sarcastically.
The Peninsula
