When the Saudi Arabian Tennis Federation announced that its new ambassador would be Rafael Nadal, he declared the following about the country: “Wherever you look, you can see growth and development there.” Meanwhile, Abdullah al Derazi and Jalal Labbad, aged 27 and 21, have been in prison for years, awaiting their respective death sentences. The crime: having participated in anti-government protests when they were minors. These two cases are the latest that have come to light about a country with a serious history of repression, torture, murders and even suspicions of crimes against humanity. All this, while the crown prince and leader in factMohamed bin Salmán, invests millionaire amounts in financing sporting events and renowned athletes to clean up his reputation and gain legitimacy on the international stage.
While Saudi Arabia has traditionally topped the most dire human rights rankings, in 2024 the outlook is bleaker than ever. Lina Hathloul, head of political advocacy for the Saudi NGO ALQST, denounces that the country has become a dictatorship in which all institutions have been annihilated. “It is a police state governed by a single person and where you do not know what the red lines are, when you will be arrested or why. And if they arrest you, they can put you in unofficial detention centers where they will torture you,” she says. “People have been arrested just for posting tweets calling for the release of activists. Also for talking about unemployment. Anything that is considered a criticism of government policies is criminalized,” she warns from her exile in Brussels.
Writing on heir and called for the release of detained activists. Al Ghamdi only had 10 followers on his account. “Practically all activists, independent journalists or writers have been subjected to arbitrary detention and unfair trials,” maintains Esteban Beltrán, director of Amnesty Spain, who also recalls that the prohibition of forming parties, unions or any other independent groups, and that all demonstrations are prohibited.
In 2023, Saudi Arabia detained and imprisoned at least 68 people for crimes against freedom of expression, assembly and association, according to Amnesty’s count, but it is not known how many fill the country’s prisons. Between 2018 and 2023, 556 prisoners were executed, mainly by beheading. 2022 was the record year, with 196 deaths. Between January and October 2023, Saudi justice ended the lives of 112 subjects.
In approximately the same years, the country also reached the record of investments to whiten its image through the sponsorship of sporting events or high-level athletes: 6.3 billion euros since 2021, according to research by The Guardian; the equivalent of the GDP of countries like Montenegro or Barbados.
These million-dollar investments are part of the practice of sportwashing (according to the term in English) or image washing through sports and come from the so-called Public Investment Fund. It is one of the largest sovereign funds in the world, with assets of around 600 billion euros, and was created in 2016 as part of Bin Salmán’s ambitious internal reform plan called Vision 2030, made up of a series of measures aimed at making the country be less dependent on oil. “What it tries to do is cover up everything that is happening in the country, because this ambitious economic plan has nothing to do with social or political changes,” explains Beltrán.
Astronomical salaries
From there have come the astronomical amounts paid to Rafa Nadal, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema or Neymar, but also to the Spanish Football Federation for the celebration of the Super Cup in Saudi Arabia, to the Spanish golfer Jon Rahm or to the Association of Professional Golfers (PGA), the most important in this sport globally. This is also where the funds will come from to organize the 2029 Asian Winter Games, which will be held in Saudi Arabia despite being a country with practically no snow. “The prince has been playing every card he could to regain respectability on the international stage. Of course, none of this redeems him from massively violating the human rights of his people,” observes Ahmed Benchemsi, communications director for the Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch.
In fact, Saudi Arabia has known how to play its cards to the point of having completely turned around its reputation in a few years. When journalist Jamal Khashoggi was dismembered and murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, the international community turned its back on Riyadh. Even Joe Biden encouraged turning the country into a “pariah” shortly before assuming the presidency of the United States, in 2021. In 2022, the world forgot about Khashoggi and even Biden visited Riyadh to mend relations.
Because while the promotion of tourism and sports show the friendliest side of the country, on the geopolitical level it also bears fruit. For example, in the wake of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, when the West began to need more oil production, they turned to the Saudis. Hathloul points out that the United States makes the concessions that Bin Salman wants, whether in arms deals or not by condemning the human rights situation, as long as it normalizes relations with its great ally, Israel, something that was about to happen. occur just before the Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7.
“Bin Salmán has no legitimacy; He has the Government because his father gave him the title of crown prince when he was not supposed to be one. He had to imprison all of his cousins, the Saudi people did not elect him. The only thing that really allows her to be in power is that the West has accepted it,” analyzes Hathloul, who is also the sister of activist Loujain Hathloul, imprisoned for several years for promoting the right of women to drive.
Meanwhile, activists in exile and human rights organizations continue to denounce Saudi crimes and ask that figures like Nadal use their influence so that the situation of women is not forgotten — “we are talking about a country where women “They are legally subject to their male guardians,” Benchemsi recalls. Or the massacre of Ethiopian migrants carried out by Saudi police on the border with Yemen last summer. “They were shooting at unarmed women, men and children walking towards their border. They killed hundreds of them in what we call a possible crime against humanity,” denounces the HRW representative.
Or to save lives like that of the young people Al Derazi and Labbad, at imminent risk of execution, that of Professor Al Ghamdi, or that of Manahel al Otaibi, a 29-year-old physical training instructor who was arrested for wearing her abaya incorrectly. (the loose dress that avoids showing the shapes of women’s bodies) and for publishing feminist messages. She has been missing since November and no one in the international community has raised the alarm. “It’s very sad to see that someone like Nadal has agreed to buy her silence,” Hathloul laments.
Follow all the international information on Facebook y Xor our weekly newsletter.
to continue reading
_