Legal battle to prove UK-Saudi Arabia arms sales unlawful

YemenExtra

Y.A

Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) is at the Court of Appeal today to review the export of British weapons systems to Saudi Arabia for use in the ongoing war in Yemen. The judicial review is being brought against Liam Fox, Secretary of State for International Trade, for granting export licences amid extensive allegations of war crimes by Saudi Arabia in its southern neighbour.

CAAT is requesting permission to appeal against a judgement made in July last year which failed to conclude that granting such licences is unlawful.

“The law is clear: where there is a clear risk UK arms might be used in the commission of serious violations of international law, arm sales cannot go ahead,” explained Rosa Curling, a lawyer at Leigh Day. “Nothing in the open evidence presented by the UK government to the High Court suggested this risk does not exist in relation to arms to Saudi Arabia. Indeed, all the evidence we have seen from Yemen suggests the opposite: the risk is very real. You need only look at the devastating reality of the situation there.”

Recently, the administration of US President Donald Trump approved weapons sales to Saudi Arabia totaling more than $1 billion, despite growing pressure from rights groups to halt arms deals between the West and Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of the Riyadh regime. The Arab kingdom has also imposed a blockade on its impoverished neighbor, causing a dire humanitarian situation. 

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia and a coalition of its regional allies — mainly the united Arab Emirates and Jordan — started  a war against Yemen with the declared aim of crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement, who had taken over from the staunch Riyadh ally and fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, while also seeking to secure the Saudi border with its southern neighbor. Three years and over 600,000 dead and injured Yemeni people later, the war has yielded little to that effect.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) last year accused the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen of war crimes and violating international law.

Amnesty International has slammed the United States, Britain and France for their continued arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The UK-based rights group said the arms sales have been an “enormous harm to Yemeni civilians” over the course of the war.