Brian Glendnig, a British citizen and employee of a large oil corporation, was arrested during a visit to Iraq due to a debt of 20,000 British Pounds to Qatar.
An arrest warrant was issued in Qatar five years ago through Interpol, the international criminal police organization. The expenses of the warrant, also known as a "red notice", are uploaded to a database held in 195 countries and make it possible to track fugitive criminals.
Despite the original intention of the database, to arrest criminals who have committed serious crimes, some countries use the database for other purposes.
In an interview with the Sky News network, the 44-year-old Glending said that while working as a petroleum engineer in Qatar, he took a loan until he got sick and left the country.
When he landed in Iraq, he was arrested and thrown into a holding cell with 41 other people, some of them dangerous criminals whom he had paid to protect him. In the cell, he said in the interview, there were also dangerous terrorists of the Al Qaeda terrorist organization.
There was no comment from the National Bank of Qatar, which issued the arrest warrant.