A member of Qatar’s ruling family has paid $2 million to a US security company to secure “proof of life” and ultimately free relatives and others kidnapped in Iraq more than a year ago.
Gunmen kidnapped about two dozen Qataris and support staff who were taking part in a falconry hunt near the Saudi border in December 2015.
The Qatari foreign ministry said in April 2016 that two members of the party were released, but there has been no word on the rest since then.
Suspicion has fallen on Shiite militias who have become more powerful since ISIL seized large parts of Iraq in 2014.
According to documents filed to the US Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Khalifa bin Fahed bin Mohammed Al Thani, signed a contract dated March 8 with a San Diego-based company called Global Strategies Council.
The contract called for a $2m (Dh7.35m) payment up front “to obtain proof of life,” speak to government agencies and “attempt to negotiate with captors for the release of captive members of the royal family of Qatar.”
Though not naming the Qataris held, the documents provide the first Qatari acknowledgement that those kidnapped included ruling family members.
Mr Al Thani, the chairman of KBF Trading and Contracting in Doha, did not respond to Associated Press requests for comment.
Qatar’s government said the US company was “retained by a Qatari citizen acting in a private capacity.”
“We consider the hostage issue in Iraq of the utmost importance and it remains our top priority,” the government said. “We continue to engage in securing their safe release.”
The abduction happened at dawn at a desert camp in the southern Muthanna province, nearly 400 kilometres south-east of Baghdad. The United Nations said children were among those seized.
Iraqi officials say they have no new information about the kidnapping.
Global Strategies Council, which lists its director and chief executive as Miltiade “Miltos” Goudamanis, a Greek who now holds US citizenship. He and a lawyer listed for the council did not respond to requests for comment.
*Associated Press
