Former Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani broke his leg while on holiday in Morocco and was flown to Switzerland for surgery, according to the Qatari government, family members, and a clinic.
The government said the Father Emir was flown to Zurich on December 26 for urgent treatment after the holiday injury.
It added that surgery was successful and he was recuperating in Zurich.
Switzerland’s Schulthess Clinic confirmed that he underwent successful surgery without complications on December 26 and was recovering.
The family had been holidaying in Ifrane, a winter resort in the Atlas Mountains.
Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad tweeted that his father was well, explaining that he had suffered a leg fracture, undergone surgery, and was now receiving physiotherapy.
The injury and treatment explained the arrival of several ruling-family aircraft in Zurich over the weekend.
A spokesman for the Federal Office of Civil Aviation in Bern confirmed on Monday that several planes landed overnight from Friday into Saturday because of a medical emergency involving a family member, corroborating German-language Swiss press reports.
He told Agence France-Presse that the Swiss Air Force authorized emergency landings because airport operations normally stopped between midnight and 6 a.m. local time.
Zurich’s Tages-Anzeiger reported that a first Airbus operated by Qatar’s state airline arrived from Marrakesh shortly after midnight on December 26.
Two more ruling-family aircraft followed that day, one equipped for medical use, with further planes afterward.
Switzerland’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the family was in the country without providing details.
Sheikh Hamad, due to turn 64 on January 1, took power in 1995 and ruled until June 2013, when he abdicated in favor of his son Sheikh Tamim.