It is located on Al Waab street between the Hyatt Plaza and Sports City and has over 200 stores, including many famous brands in the U.S., U.K., Italian and German markets.
[3] The mall has direct access to the Aspire Tower hotel, and has a Doha Metro station nearby.
The Mall was partially re-opened on September 20, 2012, after meeting strict safety standards following the May fire that resulted in 19 deaths.
It also found that all parties concerned had lacked adherence in varying degrees to related laws, systems and safety measures.
[15][16] Co-owner of Gympanzee, Sheikh Ali bin Jassim al-Thani, is Qatar's ambassador to Belgium and is part of the powerful al-Thani family, his wife, Iman al-Kuwari, is the daughter of the then-Minister of Culture, Art, and Heritage, Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari.
[16][17] Abdulaziz bin Mohammed al-Rabban is a private-businessman who owns the Qatari Company for Real Estate and Commercial Projects (Villaggio).
Additionally, what’s absurd is for him to the pin the blame on the Nike store employee,” Raghda Kabbani – who lost her three-year-old daughter Hana in the fire.”[15]During the appeal process, all those convicted remained free and able to travel; this was most clearly evident in the case of Sheikh al-Thani who remained in Brussels as a diplomat despite being convicted of manslaughter nearly two years prior.
During the hearing, Judge Abdalrahman al-Sharafi declared that he would be excluding all testimonies given by the victim's family as evidence, claiming that one cannot be a witness and a plaintiff in the same case.
During the judge's five-hour reading of the verdict some victim's family members reportedly stormed out of the court in anger.