Saudi exiles living in the UK have spoken of threats to their lives and harassment over their support for improvements in human rights in their home country.
Saudi Arabia has been attempting to present itself as a reformed state since the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi hit squad at its consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
It has spent billions on sporting deals and promoting tourism in the country and was recently named host of a UN commission on women’s rights, despite what Amnesty International called its “abysmal” record on women’s rights.
However, Saudis living in the UK say they have faced a barrage of threats and abuse after speaking out on rights and the Saudi authorities’ jailing of women’s rights activists.
In one case, a knife was left outside the London home of a human rights activist. His wife and son were approached separately and told that if they disagreed with his views, they could get help from the Saudi embassy.
“As a father, it really left me worried,” said Yahya Assiri, who has run the human rights organisation ALQST (al-qist means “justice” in Arabic) since 2014. “For the first time, the threat felt real.
“I took my kids away from my own country and brought them here to the UK because it says it upholds democratic values and human rights,” he said.
Saudi Arabia, along with Iran, Russia and Turkey, has been identified by activists as one of the biggest perpetrators of attacks on people outside its borders in a tactic known as transnational repression, which aims to stifle debate or criticism from exiles and refugees who have fled abroad.
At least half a dozen threats to life to Saudis living in exile in the UK and elsewhere in Europe have been reported by the US-based human rights organisation Freedom House.