Qatari court convicts ex-finance minister of laundering $5.6 billion: Document

A criminal court in Qatar has sentenced the Gulf Arab state's former finance minister to 20 years in prison for laundering more than $5.6 billion, according to a document outlining the judgement seen by Reuters.

The court of first instance also ordered Ali Sherif Al Emadi to pay a fine in excess of 61 billion Qatari riyals ($16.7 billion), consisting of 40.9 billion riyals -- or twice the amount of money he laundered -- plus additional fines amounting to more than 21 billion riyals, the document shows.

Judges also found Sheikh Nawaf bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani guilty of misuse of public funds, sentencing him to six years in prison and fined him 825 million riyals, the same document shows.

Emadi and Sheikh Nawaf, who faced trial along with 14 others, can appeal against the conviction, which the court issued on January 10. It was not immediately clear whether the two had entered pleas in answer to the charges during the trial.

Emadi's lawyers did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the conviction and Emadi has not commented publicly since he was arrested.

Sheikh Nawaf was until 2021 chairman of Katara Hospitality, the hotel arm of QIA, which owns London's Savoy and New York's Plaza and developed the $600 million Katara Towers hotel project in Qatar.