“Their great concern is to be accepted socially. They live by some such principle as this: “Everybody is doing it, so it must be all right.” Morality is merely group consensus. In your modern sociological lingo, the mores are accepted as the right ways. You have unconsciously come to believe that right is discovered by taking a sort of Gallup Poll of the majority opinion, and how many are giving their ultimate allegiance to this way.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
It is now three and a half years since the takeover of Newcastle United by the Saudi Public Investment Fund and since then 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?
Carabao Cup and Saudi
Parts 1-19 of this survey have covered the period from 7th October 2021 to the end of March this year. So, what has been happening regarding Saudi Arabia in April 2025?
It was reported on April 1st by the Daily Mail that Newcastle United influencers had been shamelessly promoting trips to Saudi Arabia for fans to continue celebrating the club’s Carabao Cup triumph. It was said that, “an estimated 300,000 supporters lined the streets of Newcastle on Saturday to party with their heroes after the Magpies ended their 70-year wait for a domestic trophy by beating Liverpool at Wembley last month”.
It was further reported that, “the team have now turned their attention to Wednesday’s Premier League clash with Brentford, but multiple influencers have encouraged fans to head over to the homeland of Newcastle’s owners – Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) – to continue their celebrations”. It was also noted that the Saudi PIF had completed their controversial takeover of Newcastle in October 2021, despite multiple concerns being raised about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.
It was stated that some influencers do not appear to care, and even “hinted that the Carabao Cup party could be even bigger in the Middle East than it was in Newcastle”. A YouTuber named Thogden was said to have filmed a video with his dad where he promoted Saudi Arabia, as he asked: ‘Where’s the after-party?’
Deportation of Abdulrahman
It was reported on April 1st that a Saudi Arabian human rights defender and journalist was facing imminent deportation from Bulgaria, even though his asylum claim was yet to be processed.
It was noted that Abdulrahman al-Khalidi had been detained by the Bulgarian authorities for over three and half years, despite two court rulings ordering his release, first on 17 January and then again on 26 March.
It was further reported that, “Khalidi, who has advocated for democratic reforms in Saudi Arabia, including as part of the “bee army” of online Saudi activists with the late Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, is at risk of immediate arrest and torture if returned, his lawyers previously told Middle East Eye. Khalidi has received a slew of online threats and harassment, including from high-profile, government-linked personalities, calling him a traitor and urging his swift deportation. On 28 March, Khalidi was transferred to the migration section of the Busmantsi Detention Centre where detainees are held prior to deportation”.
Human rights breaches according to Amnesty
Also on April 1st, Amnesty International UK noted ten ways by which human rights are abused in Saudi Arabia:
1. Executions are on the increase
2. Women are widely discriminated against
3. Unfair trials and torture during detention
4. Migrant workers are treated poorly
5. Crackdown on free media & press. The Saudi authorities control domestic media and journalists can be imprisoned for a variety of ‘crimes’
6. No free speech
7. No LBGTQI+ rights
8. Many human rights activists who have been released from unfair imprisonment, face continued punishment. Many are given travel bans
9. Forced evictions
Over half a million people in the city of Jeddah have been forcibly evicted and their homes demolished, to make way for luxury hotels and buildings.
10. Protests and demonstrations are illegal
Football and Saudi
It was reported on April 2nd that at an Ireland WNT Media Day on Monday 31st March, Kyra Carusa had spoken of her concerns about football’s growing relationship with the state of Saudi Arabia. It was also noted that in October last year, Carusa had been one of over 100 professional female footballers to send an open letter urging the football governing body, Fifa, to end its partnership with oil and gas conglomerate Saudi Aramco.
It was said that “last December, Saudi Arabia was confirmed to host the 2035 edition of the men’s World Cup, while the country is also hoping to be the home of the women’s tournament the following year. Critics of the country, such as Amnesty International, have accused it of violating several human rights, including discrimination against women and LBGTQI+ individuals”.
Newcastle deals with Saudi
On April 15th it was reported in The Chronicle that Newcastle City Council were defending the push for Saudi investment as “cup win amplifies sportswashing concerns”.
It was reported that City council leader Karen Kilgour had said that she had “not had any conversations with any developers from Saudi, but that is not to say developers will not come forward” and that each case “will be taken on its individual merits”. It was also noted that the leader of the council has “repeatedly argued that it is for the UK Government, not a local council, to raise human rights issues with Saudi Arabia, a nation that reportedly executed more than 300 people in 2024”.
It was further written that NUFCFAS had vowed to keep the pressure on the council for them to be “more transparent” about dealings with the Saudi regime. A spokesman for NUFCFAS said: “The council is capable of condemning torture in China but says nothing about the torture capital of the Middle East, Saudi Arabia.” They added: “We would ask, is it right for the city that our reputation is being dragged through the mud because of our elected politicians’ ever closer relationship with the Saudi regime?”
A tool for the PIF
On April 18th , an opinion piece in the Princeton by Kristin Nagy noted that on February 26th, Princeton undergraduates had received an email through the residential college listservs recruiting students for a new international consulting project: 5Terra Advisory. It was argued that it sounded like a typical summer opportunity or start up project with added benefits, that would lure students with shiny promises of business-class travel, hefty wages, and an opportunity to work with world-famous organizations. It appeared at first like any other listserv email — until you investigate who is undersigning this project.
Nagy went on to say that the corporation that this program is partnering with, Red Sea Global (RSG), is led by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). RSG is owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Saudi Arabian government’s investment portfolio, which is part of MBS’s “Vision 2030” project to diversify the Saudi economy and open it to foreign investment.
It was also argued that, “MBS has been one of the main architects of the war in Yemen, one of the most horrifying humanitarian crises of our era. His actions have led to a manmade famine affecting 17 million people, with at least 85,000 children dying of starvation. Saudi Arabia’s airstrikes, which MBS approved and initiated, have killed or maimed over 19,200 civilians, including 2,300 children…… An investigation by Human Rights Watch found that the PIF, of which RSG is a member, has been used by the Saudi government as a tool of their human rights abuses — the plane which assassins took to kill Khashoggi was a PIF company plane chartered by the government”.
Labour deaths
On April 20th ESPN, the sports channel, noted that Saudi Arabia’s minister of sport, Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal, had insisted workers’ safety was being taken “seriously”. He also claimed that an investigation had been launched over the death of a migrant worker during construction of a stadium for the 2034 World Cup.
It was further reported that, “Besix Group, a construction company overseeing the site of Aramco Stadium in Al Khobar, told media outlets last month that “a worker sadly lost their life” at the construction site on March 12”. The Guardian was said to have reported that Muhammad Arshad, from Pakistan, had fallen to his death from an upper level.
More excecutions
It was reported in Jurist News; Law students reporting the rule of law in crisis on April 25th that Amnesty International expressed deep concern the previous day regarding a dramatic increase in executions for drug-related offences in Saudi Arabia, stressing the “fear and uncertainty faced by dozens of men currently on death row”.
It was further noted that Amnesty International had reported that the Saudi authorities had executed at least 88 individuals since January. 52 of these were executed for drug-related crimes, which was said to be almost double the executions for that same period in 2024. It was noted that the report had indicated that some individuals had been convicted based on confessions without adequate legal representation, or obtained under torture, raising serious concerns about how fair the trials for those accused of drug offenses in the country are, as well as about the integrity of the judicial process. Amnesty also noted that the families of these individuals had reported receiving no official information about their loved ones’ cases, leading to heightened stress and anxiety.
It was also reported that Amnesty International, “called on the international community to press Saudi Arabia to adhere to its obligations under international human rights law. Central to this is Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which aims to limit the application of capital punishment to only the most serious crimes. Over the past couple of decades, the international community has increasingly moved towards the abolition of the death penalty, with the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR having been adopted by 90 state parties. However, Saudi Arabia has not acceded to either the ICCPR or the protocol”.
It was stated that the Saudi Human Rights Commission had announced a moratorium on the death penalty for drug offences in 2020, but “executions resumed in 2022. Further, as per the latest Amnesty report, this reversal has been followed by a dramatic increase in such executions”.
On April 30th, it was reported by Scoop that a group of human rights experts had “expressed dismay at the continuing prosecution and sentencing of child offenders in Saudi Arabia”. It was noted that five people who had reportedly committed crimes when they were under the age of 18 had each been charged for protesting against the Government’s treatment of the Shia Muslim minority and for attending funerals of those killed by State authorities.
The experts were quoted as saying that, “enforcing a death sentence in violation of a State’s obligations under international law amounts to arbitrary execution and is therefore unlawful”.
The rise of executions in Saudi
Also on April 30th it was argued that Saudi Arabia broke records last year by executing more than 300 people, said to be a “staggering figure that exposes the kingdom’s brutal reality beneath its polished image of modernization”. It was argued that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had carefully crafted a global narrative of reform and openness, offering entertainment initiatives, flashy megaprojects, and the promise of a new Saudi Arabia. Yet at home, the state was said to be “cementing its control through fear, violence, and systemic repression. Instead of evolving into a modern state, Saudi Arabia is perfecting the art of brutal governance while selling the illusion of progress to a willing international audience”.
The surge in executions was said to not be a byproduct of instability but a “deliberate strategy to crush dissent and eliminate opposition. In a country where criticizing leadership or questioning government policy can be treated as terrorism, the line between criminal behaviour and political activism has been intentionally blurred”.
It was further noted that, “capital punishment is applied not only for violent offenses but also for political activism, religious dissent, and alleged crimes against the state. Trials are notoriously opaque, defence rights are routinely violated, and the use of torture to extract confessions is widespread. Saudi Arabia is not moving forward; it is reverting to a form of authoritarianism that masks brutality behind a new, modernized mask”.
So, there is evidence about what was happening concerning Saudi Arabia in April 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? Perhaps we ought to remember the words of Martin Luther King Jr., who visited Newcastle on 13th November 1967, to receive an honorary degree at Newcastle University. In a sermon in 1959, King noted that, “we must learn that the passive acceptance of an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby become a participant in its evil. Non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.”
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