Today’s top-of-the-table clash at St James’ Park between Newcastle United and the Premier League champions Manchester City is a sellout, in more ways than one. Home fans are understandably excited. Since the club was bought last year by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Magpies’ fortunes have improved dramatically. Dreams soar of returning geordie glory.
Yet, as 50,000-plus spectators await the kick-off, how inspiring, how redemptive and how politically powerful it would be were they to band together to observe a 60-second silence. The purpose? To protest about the wretched plight of Salma al-Shehab, a Saudi PhD student at the University of Leeds, who has been jailed by a secretive Saudi terrorism court for 34 years – for the “crime” of using Twitter.
A united, silent display of disgust would give poignant voice to Shehab’s unheard-of ordeal in terrifying prison conditions, where she has suffered numerous abuses. It would be a televised statement seen around the world, a red card to tyrants and torturers everywhere. It would tell Saudi rulers that not everything or everyone can be bought.
What has Shehab’s case to do with football? The answer is that the repressive Saudi regime and its crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman (who chairs the sovereign wealth fund and is widely believed to have ordered the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi), are increasingly using international sport to launder the kingdom’s dire reputation for systemic human rights abuses.
Another instance of sportswashing occurred at the weekend when a world heavyweight title boxing match with Britain’s Anthony Joshua was staged in Jeddah. Saudi oil money is also flowing into the rebel LIV golf tour, Formula One racing, global gaming and eSports. Now Newcastle and the Premier League have been added to Prince Mohammed’s trophy cabinet.
There is no denying, on one level, that these tactics help deflect public criticism of Riyadh’s egregious behaviour. Yet Saudi Arabia’s raised international profile also means there are more platforms, and more arenas, on which to highlight its intolerance for dissent, its mistreatment of Shia Muslims like Shehab, its mass executions and its gaping, shaming democratic deficit.
For those unfamiliar with her case, Shehab was jailed for following and retweeting anti-regime dissidents and activists. After her arrest while on holiday from Britain, where she lives with her two sons, and after many months in detention, Shehab was found guilty of “assisting those who seek to cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security by following their Twitter accounts”.
By any sane, reasonable measure, Shehab, a dental hygienist by profession, poses no threat to the Saudi state. She is no terrorist. She can hardly be described as an activist. The charge is absurd, the legal process unjust, the sentence unhinged. She should be released immediately, with an apology, and allowed to return home.
Current preoccupations aside, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, should make Shehab’s case a priority. Truss claims to stand for change. So stand up to the Saudis – unlike previous prime ministers. Leeds University has a duty of care. So, too, does Twitter. Its users have reportedly been targeted by Prince Mohammed, who controls a major indirect stake in the company via the sovereign wealth fund. Energy crisis or not, the US and France must restrain their eagerness to rehabilitate the crown prince while abuses persist.
Yet ultimately, Shehab’s ordeal is the responsibility of everyone lucky enough to live in a democratic society. All who value freedom of speech and individual rights should ask themselves what they can do to help her. Silently bearing witness at St James’ today would be a powerful start.
