Two German broadcasters have said that "they were detained by Qatari police this month as they attempted to investigate the plight of migrant labourers building infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup," according to Osborne & Gibson of the London GUARDIAN. Filmmaker and head of a Munich-based production company Peter Giesel and his cameraman Robin Ahne "were detained for 27 hours after filming the working conditions of labourers from the balcony of the Mercure Grand hotel in Doha." Giesel said, "They said they just wanted to talk to us, but it wasn't clear about what. But the interrogations went on for several hours and then the security police got involved. They were talking about us sparking a riot by talking to the workers ... and that's why we got detained and put in jail." Giesel and Ahne were seized and held on Oct. 3, at exactly the same time as FIFA's exec committee "was discussing the issue in Zurich." The pair were released after friends and family got in touch with the German embassy in Qatar, "prompting the German government's human rights commissioner to get involved." The footage shot by the German broadcasters "has been acquired by Sky Sports News" (GUARDIAN, 10/14).
