‘This is my world:’ Qatar Emir’s brother killed driver, ordered murders, says lawsuit

Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al-Thani, the brother of Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim, beat his wife’s driver to death and ordered his employees to murder, according to an explosive lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The 137-page lawsuit, seen by Al Arabiya English, leveled a number of accusations against Sheikh Khalid, including numerous violent acts, threatening employees, and attempting to spy on members of royal families across the Arabian Gulf.

In one particularly harrowing tale, plaintiff Terry Hope, an employee at the Sheikh’s Al Anabi racing team, described a situation in November 2016 involving the personal chauffeur of Sheikh Khalid’s wife.

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After berating the driver, Sheikh Khalid took the man, Hope, and his security to the Al Thani Royal Family desert camp compound, outside of Doha in Qatar, the lawsuit says.

Upon arrival, Sheikh Khalid told Hope, while referring to the chauffeur, that, “It’s time to teach this piece of sh*t a lesson.”

Sheikh Khalid would go on to beat the man while his security guards held him up, repeatedly picking the chauffeur up from the ground as he collapsed from the beating and pleaded for Sheikh Khalid to stop.

Hope stood, watching and fearing for his life, as Sheikh Khalid pulled out his pistol and forced it into the chauffeur’s mouth before then hitting him over the back of the head, at which point Hope noted that the man appeared to no longer be breathing, the lawsuit says.

“Do you want to shoot him?” Sheikh Khalid said to Hope, which he refused, earning the ire of Sheikh Khalid, who later called him a “p*ssy.”

Hope watched as the driver’s lifeless body was loaded into the back of a vehicle with the assistance of the Amiri Guard, a Qatari military unit, the lawsuit alleges.

“This is what happens when you cross me. This is my world,” Sheikh Khalid told Hope, according to the suit.

Personal hit man

A year later, in November 2017, Sheikh Khalid would ask Hope to become his personal “hit man,” the lawsuit says, telling Hope that life would become “financially easy” if he did as he was asked.

Sheikh Khalid was asking Hope to “take care” of some of his employees. Hope’s employment with Sheikh Khalid required that he commit these acts to “show his loyalty,” the lawsuit alleges.

Hope refused to comply.

Matthew Pittard, another plaintiff in the lawsuit and former US marine, described a similar situation in late 2017, where Sheikh Khalid asked him to murder a male and female who he viewed as a threat to his social reputation, the lawsuit alleges. Pittard refused.

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Employee threats

While the suit describes many actions of Sheikh Khalid’s to members outside of the Al Anabi group, his employees were also a target for the Sheikh.

Prior to the termination of his employment in late 2016, Hope was ordered to attend a party by Sheikh Khalid at his palace.

During the party, Hope was forced to watch Jason Sharpe, another employee and friend of Sheikh Khalid’s, sodomize a male prostitute with a billiard stick.

Fearing for his life, Hope attempted to leave the party but security staff did not allow him. When returning to the party, Sheikh Khalid shot at Hope twice, telling him he could not leave.

“I told you, you can’t leave. I just want to make sure that I have your attention. No one leaves until I tell them,” Sheikh Khalid said to Hope, the lawsuit alleges.

Hope, Pittard, and other employees all describe situations where Sheikh Khalid aimed a pistol at them, threatening them it they were to leave without his approval.

In 2018, while being held against his will by Sheikh Khalid, Pittard was forced to execute new employment documents. The lawsuit describes a situation with Sheikh Khalid holding a firearm and repeatedly pressing it against Pittard to coerce him to sign the documents.

After executing the new documents, and fearing for his life, Pittard was forced to surrender nearly all of his personal belongings and business documents, the lawsuit explains.

Jason Mollenbrink, another plaintiff in the lawsuit who provided medical care to Sheikh Khalid, repeatedly had a pistol pointed at him by the Sheikh, the suit says, after he returned to his employ after taking time off in the US.

Sheikh Khalid believed that Mollenbrink had been contacted by the CIA while in the US and he was now working for them, a fact denied by Mollenbrink in the lawsuit.

The Sheikh would routinely verbally and physically abuse Mollenbrink, referring to him as a “b*tch,” “c*nt,” and “f*g,” the lawsuit says.

In July 2018, Mollenbrink was locked in a bathroom with Sheikh Khalid in the Sheikh’s bedroom.

Sheikh Khalid, angry that his staff were trying to escape his palace in Qatar, yelled at Mollenbrink that he “wanted to skull f*ck someone,” before proceeding to grab his erect penis through his underwear and wave it at Mollenbrink.

Perceiving this a sexual proposition, Mollebrink ignored the advance, while Sheikh Khalid continued to vent his anger.

Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al-Thani. (File photo)

“You are going to be buried in the desert”

On one occasion, Sheikh Khalid told Ramez Tohme, another plaintiff in the suit, that he wanted a particular set of wheels shipped from California to Qatar, the lawsuit showed.

“Get me those wheels in the next few days, or you can call your father and tell him that you are going to be buried in the desert,” Sheikh Khalid threatened Tohme.

Tohme would later flee Sheikh Khalid’s palace in Qatar, and escape to the US Embassy in Doha. Due to the visa process in the emirate, Tohme would have to return to Sheikh Khalid’s palace where he would again be held against his will.

With the assistance of Pittard, who contacted the US embassy and law enforcement in the US, Tohme was able to facilitate a night time escape from the palace.

Sheikh Khalid, once he had learnt of the escape, began hunting Tohme, the lawsuit says.

He began threatening Pittard and other employees that they would need to give information of Tohme’s whereabouts or “pay the price.”

Sheikh Khalid threatened Pittard, stating that he would kill him, bury his body in the desert, and kill Pittard’s family, the lawsuit says.

Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al-Thani. (File photo)

Left permanently disabled

Tohme and Pittard would later both escape Qatar after help from the US embassy, the US Qatari Consulte in Los Angeles, and the Qatari military attaché to the UN.

They were, however, not alone in attempting to escape the fury of Sheikh Khalid.

Matthew Allende, another plaintiff in the suit and a paramedic who provided medical care to Sheikh Khalid, likewise tried to escape the Qatari palace.

In 2017, after approximately three straight weeks of 12-hour plus days and a 36-hour sleepless binge with Khaled for which Allende was forced to stay awake, he was granted one day off.

After returning to the palace and attempting to leave for a second time with Tohme, Sheikh Khalid’s armed guards told Allende he could no longer leave, as Sheikh Khalid had changed his mind.

Refusing confinement, Allende escaped the palace compound by jumping over a 1.5-meter iron fence, the lawsuit explains, and then used a security guard dog kennel to scale a 5.5-meter perimeter wall.

Fearing for his life, and attempting to escape the murderous attention of Sheikh Khalid, Allende jumped from the wall, falling the five and a half meters to the concrete ground, sustaining serious injuries.

Allende’s employment was terminated once he was healthy enough to leave the hospital on crutches and has since suffered permanent disabilities, the lawsuit says.

All six of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are suing Sheikh Khalid for the physical and emotional damage caused to them while in the employ of the Sheikh.

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