Gay Man Arrested in Qatar Speaks: 'I Never Thought I'd Return Home'

The British-Mexican man who was swept up in a Grindr "sting" in Qatar and convicted of drug offenses is finally back home and speaking out in his first interview.

After being detained for six months, Manuel Guerrero Aviña told the BBC that he was convinced that he'd "never... return home." Now that he's safely made it back, he warned other LGBTQ people to "be careful when visiting Qatar."

He cautioned, "What happened to me could happen to anyone."

After Aviña was arrested in the process of arranging a meet up with another man, later revealed to be an undercover police officer, his case raised human rights concerns.

Qatari officials insisted that Aviña was being held purely over drug charges, but the 45-year-old's family maintained that drugs were planted as an excuse to detain him.

Aviña was found guilty of possessing an illegal substance and handed a six-month suspended prison sentence, fined, and subjected to a deportation order.

"There were so many times I was terrified," Aviñal said. "I thought I would never be able to leave. I thought I might get lost in the system. I was really scared."

Aviña said he can absolutely "deny the drugs charges."

"Throughout the entire interrogation, everything they asked me about was about my sexual partners, my sexual orientation, whether I've been having sex, who I have had sex with and things like that," he said. "If it was just a drugs case, they would have been asking me about drugs."

But now Aviña said he just wants to get back to his life.

James Lynch, co-director of human-rights organization FairSquare and a former British diplomat in Qatar, called Aviña's case "grossly unfair."

"Manuel was clearly targeted because he was LGBT and living in Qatar and living his life," said Lynch. "Over the last three years, we've dealt with several cases of people who've been arrested and then interrogated without a lawyer."

He added, "The Qataris need to sort out the way justice is delivered in the country."