UK high court to review arms sales to Saudi Arabia
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A Yemeni child stands next to a wrecked car after Saudi-led airstrikes in Sana'a, Yemen, in February 2016.
The high court in Britain has given the green light for a legal review of the country’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia amid widespread civilian deaths in Yemen.
According to Press TV, the judicial review will decide whether the weapons sold to Saudi Arabia breach British and European weapons export laws.
Leigh Day solicitors, on behalf of the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), called on the UK government to suspend all current export licenses to Saudi Arabia and reject all the new ones because there was a significant chance of any weapons sold there being used for human rights abuses in Yemen.
“We certainly welcome that this judicial review will give these arms sales the full scrutiny it deserves,” CAAT spokesman Andrew Smith told the Guardian
“These arms sales should have never been approved in the first place: Saudi Arabia has an abhorrent human rights record and it has created a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen,” Smith said.
British sales of weapons to Saudi Arabia and other Arab monarchies in the Persian Gulf have faced strict scrutiny since Riyadh began bombing Yemen in March 2015, killing thousands of civilians.
Saudi Arabia is Britain’s largest weapons client. The UK government has sold over $3.8 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia since the bombing of Yemen began.
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