On Tuesday 18 February, a high level delegation from Saudi human rights organisation ALQST, visited Newcastle and met with Newcastle City Council Leader Karen Kilgour and human rights activists in the city, to discuss the situation regarding the ownership of Newcastle United by the Saudi Public Investment Fund. This was a chance for the city of Newcastle to regain its self-respect and pride.
At the post-meeting briefing at Northumbria University, Andrew Page from NUFCFAS was hosting and the delegates were, Fouz Al-Otaibi, whose sister is currently in prison in Saudi Arabia for promoting women’s rights, Ljna al-Halthoul from ALQST, Julia Legner from ALQWST, the founder of ALQST Yahya Assiri and Human Rights Watch researcher Joey Shea.
Andrew Page began the briefing by stating that a number of people had thought that Newcastle United was going in the wrong direction, when it was bought by the Saudi PIF in October 2021. It was noted that many people in and around Newcastle had promised that they would raise human rights values and issues, but these promises had not been fulfilled.
However today, Newcastle City Council Leader Karen Kilgour had now met with a delegation of human rights activists from Saudi Arabia. Andrew Page also spoke about how NECA Mayor Kim McGuinness had visited Saudi Arabia and there is to be a partnership with North East universities, although the nature of the relationship is not clear yet.
Then somebody from the UCU stated that they are upholding human rights and that people need to work on engaging human rights organisations.
Why are sports important in human rights work in Saudi Arabia?
The question was then asked: “Since you have been working on hunan rights in Saudi Arabia. why are sports important?”
Lina al-Halthoul commented that when the takeover was happening her sister had been in prison. The Saudi PIF buying club saw attention shifted, so that her sister would not be talked about. The Saudi regime was described as a dictatorship, with no institutions anymore, forced disappearances children on death row and the investment giving it all the green light.
It was noted that people have accepted money from the Saudi regime unconditionally, even though the Human Rights Watch report from last November had clearly shown how sportswashing has been used, deflect criticism.
What was discussed in the meeting with the council leader?
The meeting lasted 45 minutes, in which time the delegation were able to give an overview of their list of demands. In all eight demands were handed over to Karen Kilgour as follows:
- Publish a statement about the meeting (social media or website) with explicit mentions of political prisoners (PoCs).
- Publish a statement in support of prosecuted Saudi POC’s reaffirming the council’s commitments to human rights in the city including with respect to Newcastle United and the Saudi public Investment Fund (PIF).
- Send a letter to the PIF regarding Human Rights Watch’s report “The man who bought the world”, inquiring about the links made in the report between the PIF and human rights abuses.
- “Adopt” prisoners such as Manahel al-Otaibi and Mohammed al Rabiah and the minors sentenced to death. Publicise their cases and raise them with the Chairman pf Newcastle United Yasir al-Rumayyan.
- Consider renaming a street the St James’ Park in honour and in support of Saudi human rights defenders.
- Establish a forum between the council and human rights activists/defenders with regular bi-monthly meetings to monitor human rights situation in Saudi Arabia and develop appropriate responses.
- Monitor closely and oppose any use of the city and region as a sports washing vehicle for the Saudi regime. (The Saudi state has already used NUFC’s stadium standing on City Council or city owned land to play international football matches). Raise picture of “adopted” Saudi PoC in the public space where any Saudi-linked events may take place.
- Liaise with North East trade union movement to look at the implications of investments in Newcastle by companies such as NOON, given the shocking details of mistreatment of workers in Saudi Arabia by the Newcastle United sponsor.
The delegation said that they expect solidarity from politicians and wanted a show of solidarity with human rights defenders. However, Karen Kilgour would not have her photo taken with the delegation even after Lina al-Houthal had been talking about her sisters’ travel ban.
The delegation outlined the issues around the PIF and it was said that the city council was not aware of the Human Rights Watch report, The council said they would read the report and write to NUFC.
The delegation would also like to see prisoners as honorary citizens of Newcastle. There was no clear answer to this, but the suggestion will be followed up to try and raise the appropriate issues.
The delegation said that they had made sure that the council understands that the involvement is not sustainable as the city council will be influenced by the regime. They tried to convince the council that any investment in the future must be met by conditions around human rights
The level of oppression in Saudi Arabia is not known to the world. It is a police state targeting everyone. The regime having investment here will mean that they are imposing their policies on a democracy.
It was also argued that all the cases of people released from prison in Saudi Arabia was through public pressure, so it is not counterproductive. Speaking out does save lives e.g. Salma al-Shehab released recently
People should concentrate on violations by the Saudi regime and doing so is not being racist but trying to protect people in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis try to say that criticism of them is racist and people don’t want to be accused of racism. However, while solidarity is not racist, not caring about people in Saudi Arabia is in its own way, racist
People in Saudi Arabia are wanting human rights and democracy.
What are the next steps?
It is important for people to show support for Fouz al-Otaibi’s sister Manahel al-Otaibi. The Saudi regime is trying to break families, so standing in solidarity with Manahel after the recent releases is important. You can go to free Manahel on Twitter. This shows authorities that information gets out. There is also information here.
It is also important to engage with local politicians. In terms of national government, a trade deal is being negotiated with Gulf states. However very few details have been forthcoming on negotiations and human rights conditionality with very little transparency. It is not clear how the UK trade agreement would protect UK companies from being involved in human rights abuses with migrant workers.
It was also noted that Mohammad Bin Salman is overseeing himself in the PIF so it is definitely not separate from the regime.
Concerns were also raised about data centres in Saudi Arabia, The regime had a spy in twitter to get people with anonymous accounts arrested, so clearly any data centre on Sausi soil would be a very serious issue.
Looking to the future
We must now hope that this is the start of a positive and constructive relationship between Newcastle as a city and Saudi human rights defenders such as ALQST and Human Rights Watch. Newcastle has a proud history of human rights work and a record worth defending.
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