Court ruling puts UK-Saudi arms trade in the dock

An unprecedented legal ruling by a British judge has put the spotlight on the UK's arms trade with oppressive regimes in the Middle East and beyond.

Eight people - who used their bodies to block military vehicles last September in an attempt to impede the staging of the world's largest arms fair - were found not guilty in court on Friday 15 April.

The significance of the ruling lies in the indictment of the UK's lax restrictions on arms sales to countries like Saudi Arabia as well as the potential precedent it sets for direct action against the arms trade.

Judge Hamilton accepted that legal remedies – petitions, lobbying and other forms of polite protest – had been exhausted by the protesters. Yet such institutional appeals had not prevented the UK government from selling arms to regimes with records of using weapons illegally, including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

In doing so, he accepted the activists' argument that they acted to prevent a greater crime being committed using the weapons on sale at the Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEI) event, held bi-annually in London.

Such a defence of anti-arms trade protests has never before succeeded in a British court.

The defence, which included expert witnesses from Amnesty International and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), presented convincing evidence that illegal activities had taken place at the event in previous years.

Isa Al-Aalia, one of the eight who had been charged with 'wilfully obstructing the highway', had been granted asylum in the UK after being tortured in Bahrain for taking part in political protests. He said he had to act to try to prevent the sale of weapons to Bahraini authorities.

Such a defence of anti-arms trade protests has never before succeeded in a British court

"The dictatorship uses arms to kill people and because of that I was against arms sales. My family are still in Bahrain and their lives are in danger", he explained.

Sayed Ahmed of BIRD told the court that Bahraini authorities used teargas supplied by Britain to put down demonstrations in 2011, while a Saudi military intervention in the country also made use of UK-made armoured vehicles.

More recently, the UK government has not heeded a call from the European Parliament for an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia, accused of war crimes in its bombing campaign in Yemen.

Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) said UK fighter jets and bombs had been "central to the destruction of Yemen". Since Saudi airstrikes on Yemen began in March 2015, the UK government has reportedly approved arms exports worth around £2.8 billion, despite the fact that over 2,600 civilians including approximately 700 children have been killed.

Another protester had just returned from Kurdish areas of Turkey where she said she witnessed "massacres" of civilians by the state.

Adeela Kahan of the Hodge Jones and Allen law firm, said that "The government's continued failings to stop the illegal exhibition of certain equipment used for torture or the sale of weapons to regimes that the UK knows are committing human rights abuses clearly demonstrates its inability to enforce its own law."

The judge pointedly noted that police had failed to properly investigate whether illegal arms were on sale at DSEI. They saw their role merely as clearing protesters to allow the arms fair to carry on with business as usual.

Given this, he accepted that the activists broke the law by obstructing the highway out of necessity, in order to uphold the law where more serious crimes - such as torture and genocide – were conceivably at risk of being committed.

Although activists in London can't precisely trace whether their actions save lives in Bahrain or Yemen, it is easier than ever to understand how they might

On Monday, following the ruling, British MPs involved in the House of Commons Committee on Arms Export Control expressed concerns. But DSEI is held with the support of the UK's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the level of UK government complicity and support for the arms trade is very high.

It is possible than an appeal will be launched by the Crown Prosecution Service to overturn the ruling - particularly if leant on by Clarion Events, which organises DSEI - for fear it could lead to further protests and encourage activists to take drastic action.

But London is a hub for the arms trade. In 2015, the DSEI exhibition drew over 1,000 suppliers from more than 50 countries, including the repressive regimes of Pakistan and Azerbaijan and was attended by 30,000 delegates. In this context, more such protests are sorely needed.

Although activists in London can't precisely trace whether their actions save lives in Bahrain or Yemen, it is easier than ever in our increasingly interconnected world, to understand how they might.

CAAT characterised the decision as one in which, though protesters had been put on trial, "the arms trade was found guilty" and called for protests to shut down DSEI in 2017.



Hilary Aked is an analyst and researcher whose PhD studies focus on the influence of the Israel lobby in the United Kingdom. Follow her on Twitter: @Hilary_Aked

Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.