Email: andrew.hammond@sant.ox.ac.uk, hammond@hotmail.com

Dr. Andrew Hammond teaches Late Ottoman and modern Turkish history at the University of Oxford and is a consultant on Middle East politics for HSBC bank. He previously worked as a Middle East policy fellow for the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and as a journalist with Reuters in Egypt and Saudi Arabia and with BBC Arabic radio in London. He studied Arabic and early Islamic history at SOAS and Turkish and Modern Middle East Studies at Oxford. His publications include – The Islamic Utopia: The Illusion of Reform in Saudi Arabia (2012), Popular Culture in North Africa and the Middle East (2017), Culture in the Arab World  (2007)​;​ and  Qatar’s Transition: Like Father, Like Son  (2014).

Email: david.b.roberts@kcl.ac.uk

David has spent much of the past decade living in the Gulf region, mostly in Qatar. Initially, he studied Arabic at Qatar University in order to conduct the fieldwork for his PhD based at Durham University that focused on grasping the complexities of Qatari Foreign Policy. He was then asked to return to Doha to run the Qatar office of the security and defence think-tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). This involved procuring contracts throughout the public and private sectors both in Qatar and abroad. David also undertook regular work for a range of consultancy firms based in London seeking to better understand bespoke aspects of Qatari business and political practice, in addition to being the lead Qatar expert for a number of NGOs with transparency, security, and business practice-related surveys and assessments. David’s last incarnation in Qatar was as a lecturer for King’s College London at the nascent Qatari military staff college. More generally, David has been publishing articles, opinion pieces, and editorials focusing on Qatar and Gulf politics for a decade and speaks at a range of forums (academic, governmental, commercial) on a regular basis. His book examining the rise of the Qatari state  – Qatar: Securing the Global Ambitions of a City-State – will be published in early 2016.

Email: rebwar@mideastconsultancy.com/ info@mideastconsultancy.com

Dr Rebwar Fatah is the Director of the Middle East Consultancy Services. Dr Fatah has produced thousands of COI reports since he began working as an expert witness in 2000. In the past five years alone, Dr Fatah has produced 1,341 Expert Reports on the Middle East. These include:

• 830 Country Expert Reports
• 416 Document Authentication Reports
• 95 Nationality Reports

Dr Fatah’s reports have been commissioned for and cited in several immigration appeals, as well as family and criminal cases. Moreover, he has assessed many people from the Middle East whose nationality, native language, ethnicity, place of residence has been disputed, and has examined thousands of documents from the MENA region. In addition to a deep knowledge of the region’s administrative and bureaucratic cultures, Dr Fatah’s multilingual proficiencies enable him to understand, interpret and evaluate official documents in the Middle East. As a part of this work, Dr Fatah has produced his own methodology for document authentications and nationality examinations.

Dr Fatah has also provided written and oral evidence in court; among them are five Country Guidance Cases, two Turkish extradition orders and many other cases. Moreover, Dr Fatah has also reviewed and provided guidance on Home Office CPIN reports.

Dr Fatah regularly visits the Middle East, conducting fact-finding missions to ensure that his knowledge is up to date and based on reliable information. Dr Fatah speaks most of the Middle Eastern languages as well as their various dialects. Dr Fatah’s Country Expert Reports cover a wide range of issues, including the general security situation, sufficiency of protection, crimes of honour, healthcare, corruption, and at-risk groups of different sexual, religious, political and cultural profiles.

Email: gabbay@muslimworldexpert.com

Dr Shaul Gabbay acts as a resource for immigration attorneys seeking advice, counsel and expert testimony in asylum cases. Formerly the Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East at the University of Denver, he has published extensively on cultures and customs in all Muslim countries, persecution issues based on family dishonour, gender and homosexuality, and sociology and politics of the Muslim world. Professor Gabbay’s expertise helps immigration attorneys and judges understand key societal issues and trends in the Muslim world that have life-threatening repercussions for Muslim immigrants throughout the U.S. at risk of deportation. His oral testimony and written analysis draw on his extensive knowledge and examination of cultural practices in Muslim countries as well as his life experience growing up in the Middle East. More information is on his website: www.muslimworldexpert.com.