Corruption prosecution moves ahead – thank you

After years of delay the Serious Fraud Office announced it has
brought charges in relations to allegations of corruption in an
arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

Thousands of CAAT supporters took action this year to shine a
spotlight on this case – thank you all for making sure that the
government could not sweep it under the carpet.

The allegations relate to a £2 billion deal to supply the Saudi
Arabian National Guard (which helps Saudi Arabia’s repressive
rulers maintain control).

The UK's Serious Fraud Office began investigating the deal in
2012. In 2018 it finally requested a prosecution – but then
nothing happened.

An earlier corruption investigation was blocked by the UK
government in order to protect the UK’s trading relationship with
Saudi Arabia, so we feared the same fate for this one ...

… until thousands of you wrote to the new Attorney General and
demanded action. In April, Suella Braverman told
Parliament: "that case was one of the first matters, if not the
first, to cross my desk, so it is a priority for me and I will
not rest until we find an appropriate resolution."

Now GPT and three individuals have been charged
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. Thank you again for helping ensure some rare and important
accountability.

Yemen

In July the government announced it would resume licensing arms
sales to the Saudi-led coalition bombing Yemen – arms sales which
had been put on hold following legal action by CAAT. We continue
to explore all options available to challenge this decision.

The government claims that war crimes committed in the attacks on
Yemen were just "isolated incidents."

This is an incomprehensible conclusion. The Saudi-led
coalition has destroyed Yemen’s means of
food production, targeting factories, farmland, warehouses and
markets. Yemen’s health system has “almost collapsed” after the
bombing of hospitals, clinics and vaccinations centres. Weddings,
funerals and schools have been attacked. These are not isolated
incidents but a pattern of repeated violations.

A parliamentary question revealed
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that the government has itself recorded over 500 possible
breaches of international law in Yemen.

We won’t let this stand. Last month opposition parties came
together to force a debate in Parliament, with powerful demands
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for answers – but the government still refuses to publish its
assessment.

Our lawyers have set out 15 questions the government must answer

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: we await their response.


Football and human rights

This week we also heard that the Saudi regime-backed consortium
has backed out of buying Newcastle United
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football club due to "financial uncertainties" after
Coronavirus. This is the right outcome for the wrong reasons.

The history and character of the Saudi regime should have been
enough to prevent it even being considered. CAAT has urged the FA
to strengthen regulations to ensure that clubs are not entering
into negotiations with human rights abusers in the future.

US State violence

We also continue to push for an end to UK sales of tear gas to
the US, where tear gas has been repeatedly used on those
protesting against racist state violence.

Thank you to everyone who wrote to their MP: together we ensured
more than 96% of UK parliamentarians were lobbied.

Our friends at Deighton Pierce Glynn are pursuing a legal case to
stop the sale of tear gas and rubber bullets to US police forces.
There are still a few more hours left in which you can support
their crowdfunder.
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Online Reading group

You can still join the final two sessions of CAAT’s Reading Group
series online
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. The remaining sessions will look at the arms trade’s
intersections with Coronavirus and Climate Justice. Catch up on
previous sessions on our YouTube channel.
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Campaign Against Arms Trade ( [link removed] )
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