'Forgetting Jamal’s case does not align with the values of justice and democratic and human rights in your country.'

Jamal Khashoggi’s widow has called on Keir Starmer to confront the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the murder of her husband at a meeting with the Saudi Arabian leader later today.

Keir Starmer will meet with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this afternoon to discuss strengthening trade ties with Saudi Arabia, despite concerns about the regime’s poor human rights record. 

These concerns include the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. US intelligence officials have accused the Crown prince of personally ordering Khashoggi’s murder. 

Khashoggi’s widow, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, told the Guardian: “We look here to your country, to the UK and to the US and most western countries, with respect because you have justice and you care for democratic and human rights.”

She added: “Forgetting Jamal’s case does not align with the values of justice and democratic and human rights in your country.”

A recent report by the NGO Human Rights Watch found that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has “facilitated and benefited from human rights abuses”.

Sovereign wealth funds are funds accumulated by a government, often consisting of government revenue, trade surpluses, and reserves, and are invested domestically and abroad. Many have been built on oil wealth.

Chaired by MBS, HRW identified that the PIF has directly benefited from serious human rights abuses, including the 2017 “anti-corruption” crackdown, which involved arbitrary detentions, mistreatment of detainees, and extortion from the Saudi elite.

HRW also said that the PIF has also facilitated human rights violations through companies it controls, notably in relation to the murder of Khashoggi, a key critic of the anti-corruption crackdown.

Polly Truscott, Amnesty International UK’s Foreign Policy Adviser, said: “The PM needs to making it completely clear to his counterparts in the UAE and Saudi Arabia that respect for human rights and the rule of law is part and parcel of the UK doing business abroad. 

“In the UAE, Keir Starmer should be broaching the fact that the authorities are holding dozens of prisoners of conscience, operate the laxest safety standards for outdoor work in the Arab Gulf region and severely restrict the right to free speech.  

“In Saudi Arabia, Mr Starmer needs to challenge the authorities’ draconian repression of human rights defenders, rampant use of the death penalty and institutionalised discrimination against women.”

According to Amnesty International, Saudi authorities have executed over 280 people this year, marking the highest number in decades, with many of these executions following “grossly unfair trials”.

Truscott added: “The plight of women who dare to speak out about the need for their rights to be respected in Saudi Arabia is especially grave.  

“Earlier this year, the 30-year-old fitness instructor Manahel al-Otaibi was sentenced to 11 years for tweeting in support of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia and posting photos of herself without an abaya. 

“For too long these business trips have treated human rights as an optional extra, usually meriting only a terse comment to the media that ‘human rights were raised’. 

Before Starmer’s trip to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates today, number 10 announced a series of new Saudi-UK deals. 

Downing Street said that closer ties between the UK and Saudi Arabia will create more than 4,000 British jobs, many of them in the north of England.

Today, Graphene Innovation Manchester (GIM) will announce the launch of the world’s first commercial production of graphene-enriched carbon fibre, with Saudi Arabia’s NEOM Giga-Project. 

The UK and Saudi Arabia are also working together to establish a new Joint International Institute for Clean Hydrogen.

The Institute will be backed by a group of Saudi and British universities, including Newcastle University.

North East Mayor, Kim McGuinness, will join the Prime Minister in Saudi Arabia to discuss further green energy investment and opportunities between Saudi Arabia and the North East.

Starmer’s meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince is part of a two-day Middle East visit to strenghten economic ties with the Gulf. During his trip, he will also visit Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

Comments are closed.