Dozens of British activists organized on Wednesday a protest in front of the High Court in London to demand that their country’s government stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia for use in the war on Yemen.
According to IRNA news agency the participants carried banners on which it was written that Britain violating the law by allowing the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia that could be used in the war against Yemen, despite the existence of evidence of committing crimes despite Saudis repeated violations of human rights and international law there.
These activists, who called themselves the “Campaign Against Arms Trade,” said that the London government made a mistake in its 2020 decision to resume issuing permits for the supply of military equipment to Saudi Arabia.
This campaign also indicates that granting licenses to sell arms to Saudi Arabia is an illegal procedure, and there is a clear danger that the weapons could be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law during the ongoing Saudi-led coalition against the Yemeni people.
The campaign is also calling on the British Supreme Court to rule that the government’s decision to continue granting export licenses to Saudi Arabia and to refuse to suspend existing permits is illegal.
Influenced by this popular campaign, which took a legal course, the British Court of Appeal ruled in 2019 that the government had failed to assess whether Saudi Arabia had committed some kind of wrongdoing.
