Five staff at a Turkish restaurant in Qatar have been jailed for serving meals that gave customers food poisoning.
A court at first instance ordered the closure of the famous Marmara Istanbul restaurant in Bin Omran, Doha, fined it QR32,000 ($8700) and – in an unprecedented move – jailed five of its employees, according to local press.
The employees were given sentences of varying terms and will be deported after serving their time.
Among those convicted are the manager, who was sentenced to three months in jail and fined QR10,000, three other members of staff who were sentenced to one month in jail and fined QR7,000 each, and another staffer, who lacked a health certificate, who was jailed for a month and fined QR8,000.
Around 20 customers, including a seven months’ pregnant woman who was rushed to hospital and gave birth prematurely; her husband and two children, became ill after eating stale food from the restaurant last October, according to The Peninsula newspaper.
Qatar’s Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning ordered the restaurant to close for two months following an inspection. Doha News reported that the ministry published photos at the time of apparently dirty chopping boards and worktops, grills smeared with food deposits and food lying on the surfaces.
The case is expected to go to appeal.
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