In a move that is being hailed by stakeholders, Human rights lawyers have filed a complaint to British police accusing senior government officials of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of complicity in war crimes in Yemen.
This move was made by an international justice chamber that specializes in enforcing human rights and international crime norms, Guernica 37. It was gathered that the London-based company submitted their report to the Metropolitan Police Service and the Crown Prosecution Service.
Toby Cadman, leading advocate of the complaint claimed that 22 high-ranking Saudi and Emirati political and military officials were involved in crimes against humanity.
In the file, the lawyers called for the alleged individuals to be arrested immediately upon entering the United Kingdom, a close diplomatic ally to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
However, as of the time of filing this report, the lawyers were yet to release the list of names.
Cadman said “We are talking about the most heinous crimes and we don’t believe there is any immunity from them”.
Guernica 37, in the dossier, referred to three events: a 2018 air attack on a school bus in northern Yemen which killed at least 26 children, a 2016 aerial bombing of a funeral in Yemen’s capital which killed 140 people, and the alleged torture and murder of civilians in southern Yemen by Colombian mercenaries.
The lawyers cited accounts from survivors of the incidents and their relatives as evidence and also featured testimonies from the families of those killed.
It is important to note that Yemen has been in the throes of war since 2014, when the Iranian-aligned Houthi rebel group seized large swathes of the country, including Sana’a, forcing the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee.
The fight escalated in March 2015, when a Saudi Arabian-led military coalition featuring the United Arab Emirates intervened to try to reestablish Hadi’s administration.
Multiple reports have it that the fight has killed tens of thousands of people and spawned what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Both sides have been accused of committing war crimes.
Infantino did not specify what those “other activities” were.
It was gathered that in the meeting, officials from the Italian, Romanian, German, Portuguese and other federations told Infantino that the changes would be damaging to the game and also criticised the way the consultation process has been handled.
