“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Martin Luther King Jr
It is now going on for three and a half years since the takeover of Newcastle United by the Saudi PIF, and NE Bylines has been regularly reviewing what life is like in that Middle Eastern kingdom and what has happened there since that takeover in October 2021. There are some who would claim that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a place where human rights are not respected and that the regime is a murderous regime, which starts illegal wars and is responsible for many human rights abuses. But is all that really true? Let’s see what has been happening and look at the hard evidence. How has Saudi Arabia been reported in recent weeks?
Parts 1-16 of this survey have covered the period from 7th October 2021 to the end of December last year. So, what has been happening regarding Saudi Arabia in January 2025?
On 2nd January it was reported by Khamma News Agency that “following the increase in executions of Afghan citizens in Iran”, the Ministry of the Interior of the Islamic Republic had condemned the execution of six of its citizens in Saudi Arabia. They emphasized that the carrying out of executions without prior notice to the Iranian embassy “violates international legal norms, including the Consular Relations Convention.” Furthermore, it was said that the Iranian Ministry had summoned the Saudi Ambassador in Tehran.
The North East and Saudi Arabia
On 5th January, it was reported on the front page of the Sunday Sun that Kim McGuiness, the North East mayor had defended her decision to join Sir Keir Starmer on a trade mission to Saudi Arabia. It was noted that, “Kim McGuinness travelled with the Prime Minister on a trip to the Gulf last month, during which the North East was promised ‘immediate benefits’ following talks on green energy projects and other investments. The region’s growing links to the Middle East nation have come under scrutiny since the Saudi-led takeover of Newcastle United in 2021, with activists having repeatedly raised serious concerns about the state’s human rights record.”
Furthermore, it was reported that Amnesty International UK had “called on Sir Keir to use talks with Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman, during which the Arsenal-supporting PM invited the crown prince to the UK and suggested they watch a football match together, to “challenge the authorities’ draconian repression of human rights defenders, rampant use of the death penalty and institutionalised discrimination against women.”
It was also noted that Newcastle City Council leader Karen Kilgour had recently agreed to meet with human rights activists from Saudi Arabia, while the NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing campaign group had accused Tyneside’s leaders of “falling over themselves to cosy up” to Saudi Arabia since the football club’s takeover “while Newcastle’s reputation gets dragged through the mud.” The group was reported as saying that it had “not been clear” what benefits the relationship with Saudi Arabia had yet delivered for the North East.
Executions and repression
On 6th January, it was reported by Middle East Eye that 2024 had seen a massive rise in the number of executions in Saudi Arabia, doubling year on year, according to a new report by a Saudi rights group. It was further reported that, “the Berlin-based European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) tracked the executions of 345 people in 2024, up from 172 in 2023. It said that this equates to one execution every 25 hours.”
The rights group were also said to have reported a sharp increase in executions related to drug charges, and a record-breaking rise in the executions of foreign nationals and women. However, it was also argued that the figures are cloaked in secrecy, and ESOHR believed the true number is likely to be much higher. Indeed it was noted that “according to the report, 2024 saw a surge in Ta’zir rulings – discretionary punishments that are not defined by sharia – and an increasing failure by the interior ministry to disclose charges for executions.”
It was reported by the Associated Press on 7th January that Saudi Arabia had forced a Florida retiree to try to renounce his American citizenship after jailing him over social media posts critical of the kingdom’s crown prince, according to the man’s son. It was said that, “the retiree, 74-year-old Saad Almadi, is one of at least four dual Saudi-American nationals who accuse Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s government of pressuring them to give up their U.S. citizenship, a U.S.-based Middle East human rights group said.”
The alleged tactic was said to track with “similar efforts to silence even mild criticism, including the threat of imprisonment and exit bans like the one that has kept Almadi from returning to the U.S. after being released from more than a year in a Saudi prison.”
More regarding the World Cup
On 12th January, VOA News reported that a Saudi human rights activist had warned on 9th January that football fans visiting Saudi Arabia for the 2034 World Cup will “live in a “bubble” that does not reflect real life there”. It was noted that after FIFA had confirmed Saudi Arabia as the 2034 tournament host on Wednesday, the football body president Gianni Infantino had acknowledged that “the world will be watching” to see positive social change.
It was further reported that human rights groups think that migrant workers’ lives will be at risk during the building of the stadia and other projects for the World Cup, while Saudi Arabia’s laws limiting freedoms for women and LGBTQ+ people have been criticized at the United Nations Human Rights council.
Lina al-Hathloul, a Saudi activist with the London-based rights group ALQST, said: “Western people will be very safe. They will see a bubble of what Saudi Arabia is”. She also claimed that Saudi Arabia today is “a pure police state.”
On 14th January Human Rights Watch claimed that President Biden had failed over human rights. With regards to Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch said: “By 2022, halfway through his presidency, Biden was flying to Saudi Arabia and offering MBS a fist bump. The visit was intended to convince Riyadh to lower oil prices amid a global energy crunch caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but Biden came home empty-handed. And even though Biden said human rights concerns would be “on the agenda,” autocrats aren’t swayed by quiet conversation. They need to face serious consequences, which Biden was unwilling to impose. In fact, after Biden’s visit, the Saudi government increased its repression, imposing measures such as decades-long prison sentences for online activism. And far from keeping Saudi Arabia at arm’s length, the Biden administration hitched the United States’ reputation to the autocratic state. By 2023, Washington was negotiating a defense alliance with Saudi Arabia that would pledge US resources and forces to protect the country, similar to US commitments to NATO. Saudi Arabia would have been the first nondemocracy invited into the club of US treaty allies in decades.”
Release of PHD candidate from prison
On 15th January it was reported in Middle east Eye that rights groups had said they expected Salma al-Shehab, a Leeds University doctoral candidate who had been handed down a decades-long sentence for her tweets in 2022, to be released from a Saudi prison “within the next few days”.
It was noted that, “in an open letter published on Wednesday, the organisations said they welcomed the recent decision by a Saudi court to reduce Shehab’s sentence from 27 years to four years, with a four year suspension, calling it a ‘significant step to correct a gross miscarriage of justice.”
The organisations, including the UK-based ALQST and Geneva-based MENA Rights Group, wrote: “We expect al-Shehab to be released within the next few days, and urge the Saudi authorities to ensure she is granted full freedom, including the right to travel to complete her PhD studies at the University of Leeds in the UK.”
However they were also reported as saying that they remained “deeply concerned” about the prolonged ordeal she had endured, saying that “her health had deteriorated in prison and noting her 2023 hunger strike with other women in protest against their imprisonment. The 36-year-old women’s rights activist and mother of two was arrested in January 2021 in the kingdom’s Eastern Province during a family holiday and was subjected to nearly 10 months in solitary confinement and lengthy interrogation before she was brought to trial,” the groups said.
On 17th January it was reported in Inside World Football that in its annual report, human rights organisation Human Rights Watch had spotlighted “a legacy of widespread migrant labor abuses” in Qatar following the 2022 World Cup and “widespread abuses under the kafala system on PIF-funded projects” in Saudi Arabia, the host of the 2034 World Cup.
Minky Worden of Human Rights Watch was reported to have told Inside World Football:
“As seen in the Human Rights Watch 2025 World Report, both Saudi Arabia and Qatar are nations that rely on a large migrant labor workforce,” Minky Worden of Human Rights Watch told Inside World Football.
“Both have been awarded football’s flagship event, the World Cup, by FIFA, without proper human rights due diligence. Both Qatar and Saudi Arabia have the kafala labor sponsorship system in place, leading to inadequate protections for migrant workers, including risks of forced labor, with no ability for migrant workers to form unions, stage strikes, or protest dangerous working conditions.”
On 26th January the New York Times reported that Jamal Khashoggi’s widow had said that FIFA should commemorate him at Saudi Arabia’s World Cup. It was suggested that they could name a stand in a stadium after him, or print his picture on tickets for the public.
On 28th January it was reported in Nigerian news outlet The Guardian that ITUC-Africa was warning against the abuse of workers’ rights, in connection with the 2034 World Cup. It was noted that although the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) had assured the world that the 2034 World Cup host, Saudi Arabia, had committed to protecting workers’ rights during the construction stage, the African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) were still insisting that enduring labour reforms are needed to guarantee the protection of black workers in the country.
Furthermore, it was also reported that in his reaction to a letter written to the workers union by FIFA Secretary General, Mattias Grafstrôm, on the allegation of labour abuse by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Joel Odigie, the General Secretary of ITUC-Africa, was quoted as saying: “The World Cup has been awarded to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) but the concerns for human and labour rights remain. ITUC-Africa appreciates FIFA’s response but is concerned that the commitments made by FIFA will be unrealised if the needed reforms in the KSA’s labour market and industrial milieus are not process-driven, inclusive, collaborative and genuine.”
On 30th January, it was again reported that University of Leeds student, Salma al-Shehab, was expected to be released from a Saudi prison “within days” after her sentence had been reduced. It was noted that, “the 36-year-old dental hygienist and mother of two was sentenced to 27 years in prison while on holiday in Saudi Arabia in January 2021, after she retweeted posts in support of allowing women to drive and calling for the release of detained activists, the Middle East Eye reports.”
So, there is evidence about what was happening concerning Saudi Arabia in January 2025. Are those who accuse the Saudi regime of having a bad human rights record being fair? What should we say and what should we do today and in the future, in order to respond to the human rights record of the Saudi regime?
I am reminded of the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “Now, it’s possible to resist evil; this is your first responsibility; never adjust to evil, resist it. But if you can resist it without resorting to violence or to hate, you can stand up against it and still love the individuals that carry on the evil system that you are resisting.”
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO OUR CROWDFUNDER
HELP US BECOME STRONGER SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO DELIVER POWERFUL CITIZEN JOURNALISM!
