Newcastle United play their first cup final for over 20 years this afternoon. Facing Manchester United in the Carabao Cup is a big moment for the club and the city and is a mark of Newcastle’s recent success. But these achievements are tainted because it is built with money from a bloodthirsty Saudi Arabian regime, which has executed over 1,000 people in the last eight years.
Since Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund bought Newcastle United in October 2021, 157 people, including some children, have been put to death. These executions are overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who is also the Chair of the PIF. Dozens more have been arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned for exercising freedom of speech on social media.
When asked about the ownership of his club, Newcastle manager Eddie Howe has said he wants to stick to talking about football and that he ‘doesn’t feel qualified’ to discuss human rights. ‘I’ve definitely read up on the subjects I’m being asked about,’ he added.
A bloodthirsty regime like Saudi Arabia should not be buying up football clubs in Britain
Reprieve’s latest report on capital punishment in Saudi Arabia, which was released last month, was widely reported in British media: print, radio, TV and online. Perhaps Howe has read it? It shows that the six bloodiest years of executions in Saudi Arabia’s modern history have all been under the leadership of Mohammed bin Salman and his father, King Salman and that the rate of executions has almost doubled since they came to power.
No analysis of capital punishment in Saudi Arabia can claim to be truly complete. The regime refuses to publish death penalty data. It does not warn families their loved ones are to be executed and does not return the bodies of those it has killed.
So while Reprieve and the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) verify official announcements of executions using open-source investigation, casework and interviews with family members, we can never know exactly how many people are on death row, how many people have been sentenced to death, or even know for sure how many have been executed.
Of the 81 men killed in a mass execution on March 12, 2022, for instance, only 12 death sentences had been documented by ESOHR: the remaining 69 men were tried, convicted, sentenced and executed in complete secrecy.
The Saudi regime lies about the subject persistently. In 2016, it told the United Nations it had abolished capital punishment for childhood crimes. In 2018, it passed a Juvenile Law; and in 2020 announced a Royal Decree, supposedly cementing this reform. Then, in 2021, it executed Mustafa al-Darwish for joining protests when he was 17 years old. Abdullah al-Howaiti, arrested at the age of 14 and sentenced to death at 17, remains on death row.
Saudi Arabia also lies about the people it executes, declaring them guilty of ‘terrorism’ offences after convicting them at the Specialised Criminal Court, where the accused often have neither lawyers nor family members to defend them. The 81 men executed on the same day last March were labelled ‘terrorists’. Half had the ‘crime’ of attending demonstrations on their charge sheets. Almost three-quarters were convicted of non-lethal offences.
‘Disobeying the ruler’ is a common charge – enough, in practice, to merit execution. Salman Aloudah and Hassan al-Maliki are at risk of the death penalty for statements they posted on Twitter perceived as critical of official policy. Three men were sentenced to death for objecting to being kicked off their land to make way for the NEOM megacity. Anyone who arouses the Crown Prince’s ire or gets in his way is at risk.
A bloodthirsty regime like Saudi Arabia should not be buying up football clubs in Britain. Their ownership of Newcastle United is an attempt to ‘sportswash’ their reputation as a state; they have done the same by facilitating multi-million dollar contracts with international football and boxing stars back home too. But when these deals go unchecked, and when there are no consequences for executing protesters and children, further mass executions become almost inevitable.
Saudi Arabia is strongly tipped to be nominated as the host of the 2030 World Cup. This will mark the culmination of MBS’s grand, decade-long modernisation project: Vision 2030. The regime’s ownership of Newcastle United lays the groundwork for the bid. It seeks to legitimise them in the eyes of the footballing world. There are Newcastle fans who are speaking out, but the silence of the manager and players is stark.
If the first seven years of King Salman and MBS’s rule saw more than 1,000 people executed, how many more will be killed in the next seven years, to 2030? And how many more people must die before Newcastle United and other ‘sportswashing’ stars say ‘enough’ and demand an end to the bloodshed and lies?
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