UK court rejects appeal to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia over Yemen atrocities

According to rights groups, an estimated 8,983 civilians have been killed in over 25,000 airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen since 2015, many of which were carried out by UK-supplied military equipment

June 07, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch
UK arms sale to Saudi Arabia
(Photo: CAAT)

On Tuesday, June 6, a UK court rejected an appeal for a judicial review of the government’s decision to resume arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The appeal was made over concerns that these arms were being used to commit war crimes and human rights violations in Yemen. The judges ruled in favor of the UK government decision, saying that there was “continuing rationality” in the risk assessment carried out by government officials before resuming the arms sales three years ago.

The appeal had been filed by the anti-war group Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) after the government’s decision to resume arms sales following a freeze. CAAT has been trying to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia through legal means since 2016. It had won in the court of appeals in 2019, when judges ruled that arms sales to Saudi Arabia were unlawful.

CAAT has argued that UK-supplied weapons to Saudi Arabia have been used in Yemen by the Saudi-led military coalition to commit war crimes and human rights violations, making the UK directly complicit in those crimes. According to CAAT, the UK has sold Saudi Arabia arms and sophisticated military hardware including aircraft amounting to a total published value of 7.9 billion pounds (USD 9.8 billion) since the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen was launched in 2015. CAAT claims that the actual value could be as high as USD 30 billion.

Arms sales by the UK and other Western powers including the US to Saudi Arabia and its military coalition partners in Yemen have led to devastating consequences. As per statistics by the Yemen Data project, since the beginning of its intervention, the Saudi-led coalition has carried out over 25,000 indiscriminate air bombing campaigns in Yemen, even targeting civilian areas such as homes, markets, hospitals, schools, weddings and funerals. These airstrikes have resulted in the deaths of at least 8,983 civilians. CAAT claims that over half of these airstrikes were carried out using fighter aircraft supplied by the UK. In many cases, bombs and guided missiles dropped on defenseless civilians were also supplied by the UK.

In a statement following the verdict yesterday, CAAT spokesperson Emily Apple said, “while we are obviously disappointed with the verdict, we are particularly disappointed for the Yemeni people whose lives have been devastated by UK licensed bombs. The court’s ruling, much of which was based on closed evidence that we were not allowed to hear, exposes the low threshold the government has to reach in order to sell weapons to regimes committing human rights violations.” 

She added that the verdict only strengthens CAAT’s resolve to keep fighting for justice for the Yemeni people and explore other options to stop these arms sales. Yemeni rights group Mwatana also denounced the verdict and said the government had chosen to disregard the human rights of Yemenis and go ahead with the arms sales despite receiving first-hand evidence of airstrikes resulting in countless civilian killings.