Homosexuality is illegal in the Gulf state which has come under intense scrutiny over its rights record before the tournament that is expected to attract at least one million foreign fans.HRW said it had "documented six cases of severe and repeated beatings and five cases of sexual harassment in police custody between 2019 and 2022".Four transgender women, one bisexual woman and one gay man all told how members of the interior ministry's Preventive Security Department detained them in an underground prison in Doha.HRW said the six appeared to have been held under a 2002 law that allows for up to six months' detention without charge if "'there exist well-founded reasons to believe that the defendant may have committed a crime,' including 'violating public morality'."Qatar's World Cup organisers have stepped up assurances in recent weeks that all fans would be "welcome" at the World Cup."