- Written by Tiffany Turnbull
- BBC News, Sydney
image source, qatar airways
This airline is owned by the Qatari government
Five Australian women who were subjected to strip searches and invasive searches at Doha Airport have failed in their bid to sue Qatar Airways.
After their baby was found abandoned in an airport trash bin in 2020, they and other women were taken off the plane and tested to see if they had given birth.
The incident sparked public outrage and was condemned by several countries.
An Australian court has ruled that the national airline cannot be prosecuted under laws regulating global travel.
Five women filed suit in the Federal Court of Australia in 2021 seeking damages for alleged “unlawful touching” and false imprisonment that caused mental health effects including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. woke up. Other passengers, including those from the United Kingdom and New Zealand, were not part of the lawsuit.
But on Wednesday, Justice John Halley ruled that Qatar Airways could not be held liable under a multilateral treaty called the Montreal Convention. The Convention is used to establish the liability of airlines in the event of death or injury to passengers.
He also acknowledged that airline staff could not have influenced the actions of the Qatari police who removed the women from the plane or the nurses who examined them in an ambulance on the tarmac. .
The proposition “can be fairly characterized as ‘fanciful, trivial, implausible, improbable, and tenuous,'” the judgment said.
Judge Halley also quashed the women’s lawsuit against Qatar’s aviation regulator, saying Qatar was immune from foreign prosecution.
However, he said he may pursue claims against Qatar Airways’ subsidiary Matar, which is contracted to operate Hamad International Airport.
They could argue that there was a duty of care to Matar’s employees, who they claim failed to prevent the invasive search.
The women previously told the BBC they did not consent to the tests and were not given an explanation of what was happening to them.
“It felt like I had been raped,” said British grandmother Mandy, who asked not to be given her last name.
Another woman said she thought she was being kidnapped and held hostage.
WATCH: Qatar’s anger – how an abandoned baby led to a scandal
At the time, Qatari officials said the abandoned baby was being cared for, and Prime Minister Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani said: “We deplore the unacceptable treatment of the female passenger. What happened does not reflect Qatar’s laws or values,” he tweeted. . ”
Gulf authorities launched a criminal prosecution and the airport employee was given a suspended prison sentence.
However, lawyer Damian Starzaker told the BBC in 2021 that the women were filing the lawsuit because of what appeared to be a lack of action on Doha’s part.
They wanted a formal apology from Qatar and changes to airport procedures to prevent the incident from happening again.
One woman told the BBC: “By speaking out, we want to ensure that no woman ever suffers the same demoralizing and horrific treatment that we received.”
