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14th September 2023
02:21pm BST
The majority owners of Newcastle United have "facilitated and benefited from human rights abuses", a US senate committee hearing has been told.
Human Rights Watch have called for the US government to investigate and regulate the Saudi Public Investment Fund after an address to the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) alleged that the PIF was "directly involved" in human rights abuses that trace back to the crown prince, Mohamed bin Salman.
They added that Bin Salman "has shown a clear interest in expanding his influence beyond Saudi’s borders, often through high-profile business deals with sports teams and leagues."
There was no direct reference to Newcastle when this was mentioned.
Joey Shea, the NGO's Saudi Arabia researcher, told the Senate committee: "The PIF under MBS has facilitated and benefited from human rights abuses directly linked to the Crown Prince, including the 2017 'anti-corruption' crackdown that involved arbitrary detentions, abusive treatment, and the extortion of property from former and current government officials, prominent businessmen, and rivals within the royal family, as well as the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi."
O'Shea added: "US businesses considering a handshake with Saudi’s PIF should undertake extremely rigorous due diligence to ensure that sovereign wealth funds that invest in US companies are not furthering human rights abuses."
Speaking about the PIF's mission to paint the Saudi state in a positive image by using sport, she said: "Over the last several years, the Saudi government has embarked on a vast campaign to rehabilitate its image and deflect from global perception of the Saudi state as a severe and persistent human rights violator, particularly under the de facto leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
"The PIF has invested significantly in sportswashing, an effort to rebrand the country and distract from serious human rights abuses by hosting or sponsoring events that celebrate human achievement, like major sporting event."
Human Rights Watch have said that they have written to PIF Yasir Al-Rumayyan - who is also the chairman of Newcastle - on numerous occasions, but he is yet to respond.
After completing their takeover in October 2021, the Premier League said that they had "received legally binding assurances" that Newcastle would not be controlled by the Saudi State however US court submissions on behalf of the PIF in relation to a case linked to LIV Golf stated that the PIF is linked to the state.
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