UK lawyers to call on police to investigate key UAE, Saudi officials over Yemen war crimes

British lawyers on Wednesday, 20 October, will call on the Metropolitan Police Service to investigate key government figures in Saudi Arabia and the UAE for alleged involvement in war crimes in Yemen. According to The Guardian, London-based Guernica 37 Chambers will file a legal complaint to British police and prosecutors alleging that about 20 members of the political and military elite of the two Gulf nations are guilty of crimes against humanity. The group of human rights lawyers will also call for their immediate arrest should they enter the UK. 

As per reports, the complaint documents evidence by survivors, their relatives and families of the deceased in three horrific incidents. The full list of those accused has not yet been released by the group of lawyers, however, it is speculated that it will include Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his Emirati equivalent Mohammed bin Zayed. Toby Cadman, the barrister leading the complaint, reportedly said that he hoped the Met Police’s war crimes unit would ignore any political pressure from the British government and evaluate the issues fairly. 

Yemen war crimes

On Wednesday, the UK human rights lawyers will submit a 200-page dossier to the Met and the Crown Prosecution Service. The complaint focuses on three controversial events, including an airstrike by coalition jets on a school bus in northern Yemen in August 2018, which killed around 26 children and wounded at least 19 more. 

A second incident was a double-tap airstrike in October 2016 against a funeral gathering which led to at least 140 deaths and over 600 life-changing injuries. Thirdly, evidence will also be submitted relating to the alleged torture and murder of civilians in Aden, southern Yemen, by Colombian mercenaries under the command of a US private military company contracted to the UAE. 

Cadman reportedly said that now his company was relying on the principle of universal jurisdiction under UK law, which applies to crimes such as war crimes and torture. He noted that under the nation’s law, there is no requirement for the crimes to be committed on UK territory or there to be UK victims or UK defendants. Further, Cadman said that, therefore, the lawyers are calling on the police to apply the law and launch an investigation if there is sufficient evidence to process, regardless of the status of power of those under suspicion. 

(Image: AP)