The billionaire yacht for Qatar’s emir is at the quay in Kristiansand – VG

KRISTIANSAND / OSLO (VG) Residents of Sørlandet’s capital can now get a glimpse of one of the world’s largest yachts. Several people, who had police escorts from Kjevik airport, boarded the yacht on Saturday night.

It was the yacht “Al Lusail”, with a length of no less than 123 meters, which docked at Kristiansand harbor at around 8 pm on Saturday.

By then, Fædrelandsvennen, who first mentioned the case, had received a number of tips about the yacht’s journey into Byfjorden towards Kristiansand.

The huge yacht is owned by the emir of the small Gulf state of Qatar – Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani – who through the state company Qatar Sports Investment also owns the football giant Paris Saint-Germain, where world stars Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé raise salaries.

– It only has a short stop before they go on, says traffic inspector Matthias Eder at Kristiansand harbor to VG.

At 07:00 on Sunday morning, the surveillance service shows Marine Traffic that the yacht is still at the quay in Kristiansand.

To Fædrelandsvennen, Eder said that the boat arrived and docked at relatively short notice and that it was scheduled to continue sailing after only a few hours. Then, according to Eder, it will continue on a trip up the coast.

On Friday night, the yacht sailed from Hamburg in Germany to Kristiansand, Marine Traffic’s tracking service shows.

It is unclear who late Saturday night boarded the yacht. But a plane with the inscription Qatar, which the newspaper has published a picture of, landed on Saturday night at Kristiansand airport Kjevik.

According to the newspaper, the plane, a private plane, landed at 22.16. The newspaper further writes that all data from the plane was blocked from the surveillance service Flightradar, but that it appears that the plane came from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

Airport manager Arne Johan Johnsen confirms told the newspaper that a plane from Qatar landed at Kjevik on Saturday night, but he did not want to comment on who was on board the plane.

According to Fædrelandsvennen, several cars drove onto the runway shortly after landing, including several police cars. Then a minibus picked up several people who came with the plane, and then transported them down to the yacht in the harbor.

The people boarded the yacht around 10.50 pm on Saturday night, the newspaper writes.

To VG, traffic operator Eder says that the port of Kristiansand regularly has yachts that are at the quay.

– Also of this size?

– It happens, yes.

Eder did not want to comment on who was on board the yacht.

Yachts egg – Al Thani – has been Qatar’s head of state since his father abdicated in 2013 and transferred power to him.

Fædrelandsvennen has also published several photos of the cars that carried the party to the yacht, in addition to a photo where you can see up to ten people outside the yacht – five of them on their way up the gangway and into the yacht.

According to the website Yacht Bible, “Al Lusail” has a crew of 56 people and a capacity for 36 guests. It will be the world’s 26th largest yacht and will have cost 500 million dollars to build – equivalent to five billion Norwegian kroner.

Qatar has been under strong criticism for its human rights violations, actualized by the Gulf state to host the World Cup for men at the end of 2022.

The country has also been accused of corruption in connection with the World Cup and criticized for the working conditions of foreign guest workers at the World Cup stadiums – several of the workers have died under the strict work regime to complete the stadiums.

And in front of this is one person, the Emir of Qatar, who led the work to bring the 2022 World Cup to the country. The championship starts on November 21.

Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon visited in 2010 Qatar as part of an official visit. Here he was involved in the opening of an aluminum factory which was a collaborative project between Norwegian and Qatari industry. During the visit, the Crown Prince met Al Thani, where they both got a tour of the factory facility, the Royal House wrote then.

The Norwegian Crown Prince’s family often spends part of their summer holidays in a cabin on Dvergsøya near Kristiansand – where Crown Princess Mette-Marit comes from. According to Dagbladet, the family has rented the cabin every summer since 2010.

It is unclear whether the Crown Prince or the family is there now.