Mohammed bin Salman personally lobbied David Cameron earlier this yr to intervene within the authorized case of a London-based dissident who’s suing the Saudi authorities, amid threats by its officers that the difficulty “might have implications” for £100bn of funding within the UK.
UK authorities paperwork obtained by the Guardian present that Cameron requested senior International Workplace (FCDO) officers to suggest choices after the extraordinary intervention by the Saudi crown prince over the case introduced by Ghanem Al-Masarir, a distinguished critic of the Saudi royal household who resides beneath asylum safety within the UK.
At the centre of Al-Masarir’s case are allegations that Saudi Arabia ordered the hacking of his telephone and that he was bodily assaulted by brokers of the dominion in London in 2018.
The focusing on and hacking of Al-Masarir’s telephone by a community in all probability linked to Saudi Arabia was confirmed by researchers at The Citizen Lab, the College of Toronto, who’re thought-about among the many world’s main specialists in monitoring digital surveillance of dissidents, journalists and different members of civil society.
The crown prince of Saudi Arabia introduced up the courtroom case with Cameron, the then international secretary, on the sidelines of a World Financial Discussion board assembly held in Riyadh in late April.
Prince Mohammed’s lobbying adopted earlier stress from senior Saudi ministers, appearing at his behest, who warned the difficulty might have “implications for present and future Saudi funding within the UK which we’re informed is greater than £100bn”, in keeping with a abstract ready by British officers.
The Guardian obtained the data by a freedom of data request. It’s a abstract drawn up by civil servants in a briefing pack for a subsequent ministerial go to to Saudi Arabia by Kemi Badenoch, the present Conservative chief however the then commerce secretary, in Might 2024. Particulars emerged as Keir Starmer concludes a go to to the Center East, together with talks with the crown prince.
In January, the courtroom of attraction struck out a declare by Saudi Arabia’s attorneys meant to stop the case going forward. The excessive courtroom had dominated in 2022 it might proceed regardless of Saudi claims of state immunity, after the dominion did not pay £210,000 as safety for Al-Masarir’s prices.
Al-Masarir mentioned it was “surprising and unacceptable that [the crown prince] believes he can manipulate the UK authorities to intervene in my authorized case …
“His latest request to the UK to take motion towards my case underscores his perception that judicial techniques worldwide could be handled like Saudi Arabia’s – the place courts have by no means been impartial and serve solely to advance his private agenda.”
Al-Masarir added: that Prince Mohammed was “making an attempt to strong-arm the UK into undermining its authorized system. This blatant try and weaponise Saudi wealth is not only an assault on justice for me however on the UK’s judicial independence.”
British officers, who weren’t named within the public data, characterised the 2022 excessive courtroom ruling as containing a “considerably novel authorized opinion” within the choose’s discovering that solely a part of the alleged hurt wanted to have occurred within the UK. They famous: “We’re exploring whether or not there may be any chance that [the UK government] might search to problem this interpretation in courtroom.”
The abstract mentioned that Prince Mohammed’s intervention “comes off the again of the Saudi deputy international minister, a senior adviser to the royal courtroom and the Saudi nationwide safety adviser elevating the matter beforehand at [Prince Mohammed’s] behest”.
It added: “The Saudis are involved {that a} prejudicial ruling on this case might minimize throughout the precept of sovereign immunity, which in flip might have implications for state property.
“The difficulty is exacerbated by the controversy within the UK (and elsewhere) round the usage of seized Russian property to financially help Ukraine, which has additionally been raised by Saudi ministers (together with of finance, commerce and funding) on a number of events during the last two years.”
Any intervention would now pose a problem for the UK authorities’s chief authorized officer, Richard Hermer KC. Earlier than his appointment as legal professional basic in Starmer’s authorities, Hermer acted for Al-Masarir as his lead barrister in his excessive courtroom declare.
The battle marks the most recent instance of Prince Mohammed searching for to take advantage of authorized protections which might be granted to sovereign leaders in courts around the globe to flee authorized accountability for alleged acts of transnational repression carried out by the Saudi state.
Two years in the past, a US choose dismissed a lawsuit towards the crown prince that claimed he conspired to kill the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In his ruling, the choose mentioned the crown prince was entitled to sovereign immunity regardless of “credible allegations” that he was concerned within the homicide.
Choose John Bates, a US district courtroom choose acknowledged “uneasiness” on the time within the choice, however mentioned his fingers have been in impact tied by the Biden administration’s advice that Prince Mohammed be given immunity.
The choice to grant immunity got here shortly after the crown prince was instantly promoted to the position of prime minister, a transfer that human rights defenders mentioned was a ruse to flee accountability.
Based on a abstract of their talks issued by Downing Road, Starmer invited the crown prince to the UK and expressed hope the 2 leaders might watch a soccer recreation between conferences.
The British authorities declined to say if it was nonetheless contemplating its choices.
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