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 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 1-20 of this survey have covered the period from 7th October 2021 to the end of April this year. So, what has been happening regarding Saudi Arabia in May 2025?
Executions
It was reported on 3rd May that Saudi Arabia had executed two people on terrorism-related charges, bringing the total number of executions in the kingdom this year to at least 100, according to an AFP tally.
The Ministry of Interior was reported as saying that the two Saudis had been executed for their involvement in acts of “terrorism”, including joining a “terrorist organization” and attending training camps abroad, where they said to have learned to make explosives. It also added that, “after being referred to the competent court, a decision was issued confirming the charges against them and ordering their execution as punishment”.
AFP also noted that of the 100 people executed this year, 59 were convicted of drug-related offences, including 43 foreigners.
Jeed Basyouni of the rights group Reprieve US said in a statement: “While Saudi Arabia positions itself as a positive diplomatic actor, its international partners are showing they are willing to turn a blind eye to its flagrant human rights violations”.
Single mother in solitary confinement
On 8th May it was reported that human rights groups had called on the Saudi authorities to immediately release a 51-year-old mother of five who has been held in solitary confinement since February. It was noted that ten NGOs, including Alqst, Dawn and Human Rights Watch, had issued a statement on raising the alarm about the detention of Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani. It was highlighted that her health has rapidly deteriorated in custody.
Qahtani’s disabled daughter relies heavily on her care, yet Qahatani was handed a 45-year prison sentence by the notorious Specialised Criminal Court (SCC) in August 2022 simply for her social media activity. This was deemed to be critical of the authorities.
The NGOs’ statement was said to have described the punishment as a “travesty of justice”, and said that Qahtani’s prolonged solitary confinement is “a violation of the absolute prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Noura al-Qahtani has now suffered this gross violation of her rights for more than two months.”
British national in court
It was reported on 11th May that, a British national would appear the next day in a Riyadh court facing the threat of an extended prison sentence for a tweet. UK-based lawyer, Haydee Dijkstal, solicitor for Ahmed al-Doush said she was not clear what offence Doush was alleged to have committed or how the trial proceedings were being conducted.
The following day it was reported that Doush had reportedly been jailed for 10 years in Saudi Arabia over a deleted social media post. It was noted that Doush’s Twitter/X account had just 37 followers.
Ahmed al-Doush
It was further reported that, “Ahmed al-Doush, a senior business analyst with Bank of America, is understood to have been put in prison following his arrest by Saudi authorities on August 31, 2024, while on a family holiday to the country. He was stopped by security while preparing to fly home to the UK from King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. He has now been jailed for 10 years after a state-appointed lawyer told his wife Amaher Nour, that he had been convicted of an offence at a hearing on Monday but that he could not tell her what it was”.
Additionally, it was noted that Amnesty International had said, five months after his arrest, that Ahmed was told that charges would be issued against him for using social media to spread ‘fake, untrue and damaging news’. Doush was also accused of having a relationship with an individual who “threatened national security”. It was also said that “Ahmed’s family believe these accusations may relate to a 2018 tweet he made concerning the situation in Sudan, with no mention of Saudi Arabia, which he then deleted”.
The family were also said to believe that “the second accusation is related to his alleged association with a Saudi critic in exile with whom he has no relationship beyond knowing his son. His wife was pregnant at the time of his arrest, before catching a flight back to Manchester Airport, and he therefore missed the birth of his fourth child”.
Domestic workers in Saudi
Also on 12th May, Amnesty International published a report stating that, “Saudi Arabia’s nearly 4 million domestic workers play an essential role in enabling the country’s economic development and supporting family life. But behind closed doors, many face shocking abuse, exploitation and discrimination in return”.
Amnesty International went on to say that the report was exposing the experiences of some Kenyan women who had been recruited to work in private homes in Saudi Arabia. Once they got there they found themselves trapped in conditions that were essentially those of forced labour. It was also said that, “the report calls on Saudi Arabia to urgently overhaul its labour and migration systems, dismantle the kafala system in its entirety, and guarantee domestic workers the same rights and protections as all other workers by bringing them under the Labour Law”.
Migration for work turned into a tragedy
On 15th May it was reported that for years, Sitaram and Binita Das had longed for a son. It was said that the couple loved their five daughters, but on the deeply conservative southern plains of Nepal, they had faced having to raise large sums to pay for each of their wedding dowries.
There was no way that they could afford such costs, so they decided that Sitaram should join tens of thousands of other Nepalis going to Saudi Arabia in search of work. It was noted that, “the Gulf kingdom has seen a rise in demand for cheap migrant labour as it seeks to rebrand itself on the world stage, in part through large construction projects including futuristic cities, luxury resorts, theme parks and the hosting of the 2034 men’s football World Cup. Such rapid transformation is attracting global attention and, along with it, greater scrutiny of the alleged treatment of migrant workers such as Das in the country. When he left Nepal for Saudi Arabia, he knew his wife was pregnant, but not that he would never meet their baby”
Additionally, it was reported that in February 2024, a month before Rudke Krishna was born, Das had been at work in a deep trench when, according to witnesses, the ground above him had collapsed, crushing him to death.
As for Binita, it was said that, “friends and strangers rallied round. Das’s colleagues collected some money for the family, others heard about the tragedy on social media and chipped in and Binita received compensation
from an insurance scheme in Nepal which her husband had paid into. But from his company and the Saudi authorities, says Binita, there was only silence. Even his outstanding salary – a paltry £160 a month – remains unpaid, she says”.
Migration and “accidental deaths”
It was noted on 15th May that Human Rights Watch were reporting that scores of labourers from countries including Bangladesh, Nepal and India, have faced preventable deaths from road accidents, falling from heights, electrocution, and more while working in Saudi Arabia.
It was further reported that,” Human Rights Watch and another rights group, FairSquare, released separate investigations Wednesday detailing preventable deaths of migrant workers from job-site accidents and work-related illnesses. The reports accuse Saudi authorities of often misreporting such deaths and failing to investigate, preventing families from receiving compensation from the kingdom that they are entitled to and knowing how their loved ones died”.
NEOM
It was reported on 18th May that the anticipated cost of delivering the huge NEOM scheme in Saudi Arabia was reported to have risen from $500bn (£386bn) estimate to an amazing $8.8 trillion (£6.8 trillion), according to The New Civil Engineer.
It was also reported that, “even more shocking are the human rights abuses and brutal conditions for workers looming over NEOM – issues that have plagued the country well before the project. As many as 21,000 are reported to have died during construction on various sections of NEOM, although Saudi authorities have disputed this figure”.
Calling out the regime online
It was reported on 23rd May, that a series of videos featuring masked individuals expressing dissatisfaction with the standard of living in Saudi Arabia and calling for the fall of de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ignited an intense debate on social media this week.
It was further reported that the videos, posted by young men whose faces and eyes are covered and voices often changed, “draw attention to what they say are deteriorating living conditions and a lack of economic opportunity amid state spending on lavish entertainment events and megaprojects. They allege growing unrest within the kingdom and call for the overthrow of the crown prince.”
While Middle East Eye said that they had not been able to independently verify the videos, the clips were said to “have been posted primarily on anonymous accounts on TikTok, and have been reshared across multiple social media platforms, sparking both condemnation and praise”.
One user commented: “Today we witness a powerful movement led by the free youth of our nation, courageously raising their voices for legitimate rights: freedom & the right to determine our own fate,” said one user.
It was also noted that other people had commented that the videos were a result of growing domestic frustration, and claimed that the masked figures were speaking for suppressed voices within the kingdom.
One user said that, “in a land where voices are forbidden, the masked man emerges as an icon of rejection… The Saudi masked man is not an individual, but a moment of dignity… Behind the mask is another homeland yet to be born”.
Hearing for al-Otaibi
On 24th May, it was reported that Manahel al-Otaibi, imprisoned for eleven years for wearing western clothes and supporting women’s rights on social media, would have a hearing for her case, scheduled to take place on 26 May.
It was also reported that seven MPs and three members of the House of Lords had written to Foreign Secretary David Lammy to express their deep concern about the cases of Saudi sisters and women’s rights activists Manahel and Maryam al-Otaibi, who the MPs note, “remain imprisoned and under travel ban in the kingdom respectively. A third sister, Fouz, who is seeking asylum in the UK, remains at risk should she return home”.
‘Correctional facilities’
There was a report published on 28th May about Saudi Arabia’s notoriously secretive “jails” for women banished by their families or husbands for disobedience, extramarital sexual relations or being absent from home. The report described, “the plight of hundreds or more girls and young women believed to be held in such facilities, where they are “rehabilitated” so they can return to their families”.
It was also noted that speaking out in public or sharing footage of these “care homes”, or Dar al-Reaya, had become impossible in a country where voices on women’s rights appear to have been silenced. However, over the past six months, the Guardian said that it had “gathered testimony about what it is like inside these institutions, described as “hellish”, with weekly floggings, forced religious teachings and no visits or contact with the outside world.
“Conditions are reported to be so bad that there have been several cases of suicide or attempted suicide. The women can spend years locked up, unable to leave without the permission of their family or a male guardian”.
One young Saudi woman, who was later able to flee into exile commented: “Every girl growing up in Saudi knows about Dar al-Reaya and how awful it is. It’s like hell. I tried to end my life when I found out I was going to be taken to one. I knew what happened to women there and thought ‘I can’t survive it’”.
Meanwhile Maryam Aldossari, a Saudi activist based in London, was reported as saying: “A young girl or woman will stay in there for as long as it takes for her to accept the rules.”
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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