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.

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 available options 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 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 for answers – but the government still refuses to publish its assessment.

Our lawyers have set out 15 questions the government must answer (.pdf); we await their response.

Football and human rights

This week we also heard that a Saudi regime-backed consortium has backed out of buying Newcastle United 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. You can support their crowdfunder here.

Online Reading group

You can still join the final two sessions of CAAT’s Reading Group series online. 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.