Full interview: Martin and Jane Weekes on Doha court decision

  • 27/10/2015
The Weekes' triplets died in the 2012 fire
The Weekes' triplets died in the 2012 fire

Martin and Jane Weekes say they are "devastated" after a Doha court acquitted a Qatari ambassador over the 2012 fire at a shopping mall that killed 19 people, including their triplets.

Qatar's ambassador to Belgium, Sheikh Ali Bin Jassim al-Than, faced charges of involuntary manslaughter but he – along with three others – had his charges dropped on Monday (local time).

The Weekes, parents of two-year-old triplets Lillie, Jackson and Willsher Weekes, who died in the fire, say despite their disappointment they are not surprised no one was found guilty for the fire.

"I like to think I'm a pretty forgiving person and if any one of them had stood up and said, 'We made mistakes and we're really sorry and we're going to do things differently, what can we do to help you? How can we learn from this?' I know I could have accepted that and potentially forgiven it," says Ms Weekes.

"But for the defendants to purposefully not turn up to trials or court dates, which then means it's postponed again, which makes it harder and harder for the families of the victims, it's beyond adding insult to injury; it's making our lives harder than they had already caused it. And for me that makes it very difficult to forgive because it shows they actually don't care about the devastation that they caused and they take no responsibility for it."

Watch the video for the full interview with Martin and Jane Weekes.