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Article

28 May 2013

Author:
Omar Chatriwala and Shabina S Khatri, Al Jazeera

Officials say fire safety has improved a year after blaze killed 19 people, but families still search for justice

Parents of the children who died [[in the Villaggio mall fire] urged Qatari residents to "pause and remember" their suffering [on the first anniversary of the fire]. They also renewed calls for the Qatari government to make public all details of its investigation into the fire....Nathan Goddard, a British health and safety engineer who has worked in Qatar for 15 years, said there were issues not just with regulation, but also with implementation and building maintenance across the board. "It's a general problem, not just in Qatar, but across the Gulf - some companies will do it and some companies say they're going to do it, but when you look into it deeply you find things like fire alarms not working properly and fire exits locked," he said...[C]ourt proceedings to determine who is at fault for the 19 deaths are ongoing...Among the defendants are Sheikh Ali Bin Jassim Al Thani, Qatar's Ambassador to Belgium, and his wife Iman Al-Kuwari, daughter of Qatar's culture minister, the co-owners of the Gympanzee daycare centre where the children died...Also implicated in the trial is Villaggio's owner, Abdul Aziz Mohammed Al-Rabban, as well as the mall's manager, assistant manager and head of security. The final defendant is the official from the ministry of business and trade who was responsible for Gympanzee's commercial permit. [also refers to City Center mall]

Part of the following timelines

Qatar: Officials say fire safety has improved a year after Villaggio mall blaze killed 19 people, but families still search for justice

Villaggio Mall lawsuit (re fatal fire, Qatar)