The federal court has ruled that five Australian women who were strip-searched and invasively examined at Doha airport have the right to sue Qatar Airways.
The women launched an appeal to overturn a ruling made last year in April that the airline couldn’t face trial for the October 2020 incident.
In an episode that sparked international outrage, the women were among more than a dozen women who were forcibly led from a Sydney-bound plane into ambulances as part of a local investigation into finding the mother of a newborn baby that was found abandoned in a bathroom in Hamad international airport. The infant survived.
In 2021, the five Australian women filed a lawsuit against Qatar Airways, Qatar’s Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA) and the operators of Hamad International Airport, a firm called Matar.
They sought damages over alleged “unlawful physical contact” and false imprisonment which had caused mental health impacts. Other passengers who were invasively searched were not part of the case.
All three respondents applied to have the women’s case thrown out before it reached trial. In April 2024, Justice John Halley found Qatar Airways couldn’t be held responsible because its employees couldn’t have influenced the actions of Qatari police, who boarded the planes to remove the women.
Halley also found that the QCAA was immune from the court’s jurisdiction and determined that the five women could instead refile their claims for damages against Matar.
Hoping to pursue Qatar Airways and the QCAA directly, the women lodged an appeal against Halley’s judgement, arguing that the searches took place in the process of disembarking the aircraft and that the airline should be held liable.
On Thursday, federal Justice Angus Stewart, Justice Debra Mortimer and Justice James Stellios found Halley had made rulings on issues that could only be decided at trial. They upheld the decision to throw out the case against QCAA, but they said the complainants had the right to sue both Qatar Airways and Matar.
Qatar Airways and MATAR have been ordered to pay the costs of the appeal.
The women’s lawyer Damian Sturzaker has said the case is now expected to continue to trial in the Federal Court.
“This has always been an issue about the airline,” Sturzaker said outside the court.
“You imagine a group of five women bringing a case against a state entity that has defended this matter very staunchly from the beginning, it’s been an enormous exercise.”