Activists renew calls to raise human rights issues

HUMAN rights campaigners have issued a fresh call for leaders on Tyneside to speak out, after Saudi Arabia's execution of a man for crimes he was accused of committing when he was a minor. Politicians in Newcastle have been repeatedly urged to condemn alleged human rights abuses in the Gulf nation over recent years, since Newcastle United FC was taken over in 2021 by a consortium led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF).

- By DANIEL HOLLAND

The North East's ties to the kingdom have grown since the PIF's arrival, with Newcastle being promoted as the “gateway to Saudi” during a major UK trade mission and regional mayor Kim McGuinness later travelling with Sir Keir Starmer to Riyadh. It was reported last week that Saudi authorities had executed Jalal Abbad, an act described as “deplorable” by human rights organisation Amnesty International.

Labbad was arrested in 2017 in relation to his participation in protests in 2011 and 2012, when he was under 18, against the treatment of Saudi Arabia's Shi’a minority and was later “severely tortured” and sentenced to death, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Newcastle City Council and the city’s MPs were urged this week by the NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing (NUFCFAS) group to condemn “the brutal and illegal execution of Jalal and demand that all further executions of child offenders be stopped forthwith”.