- Protests will take place outside the Embassies of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in London as Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS), King Hamad AlKhalifa of Bahrain and leaders from the UAE are expected to visit ahead of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth.
- For eight years the UK has supported the Saudi-led Coalition’s bombardments in Yemen, through unrestrained arms exports, despite overwhelming evidence of war crimes and a catastrophic humanitarian disaster.
- CAAT estimates that the total value of UK arms sales to the Saudi-led Coalition since the beginning of the war is over £23 billion.
It is the first time Mohammed Bin Salman will visit the UK since the shocking murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. The visit comes as Saudi Arabia once again displays its appalling human rights record. The country carried out the largest mass execution in its modern history in March, executing 81 people in one day. Last month two women were sentenced to 34 and 45 years in prison respectively, simply for social media activity.
The UK government continues to license the export of weapons to the Saudi-led Coalition for use in the war in Yemen despite overwhelming evidence of violations of International Humanitarian Law. CAAT will challenge the UK government’s supply of arms sales to the Coalition in the High Court early next year, in a hearing to take place from 31st January – 2nd February 2023.
The UK replicates this relationship across the Gulf, exporting millions worth of arms to Bahrain, while pro-democracy prisoners have been in detention for over a decade. Bahrain continues to use the death penalty, torture and detention of hundreds of political prisoners to silence opposition.
Katie Fallon of Campaign Against Arms Trade said:
“There are no circumstances where it is appropriate to welcome dictators from the world’s worst human rights abusing regimes to the UK. Mohammed bin Salman is at the head of a murderous regime which in recent months has seen a renewed deterioration of the human rights situation in the country. The Saudi-led Coalition in Yemen has been supported by the UK with eight years of unrestrained arms exports, despite evidence of war crimes and the worst humanitarian disaster in the world. These despots are using the Queen’s state funeral as an opportunity to whitewash their reputations. Like Putin and Assad, there needs to be a clear message sent that dictators orchestrating grievous human rights abuses are not welcome in the UK.”
