The brother of a man executed by the Saudi Arabian authorities last year has accused Formula One of being complicit in “heinous crimes” perpetrated by the state, which he insists is using F1 to sportswash an increasingly oppressive crackdown on dissent.
When F1 returns to the Jeddah circuit this weekend it will be just over a year since the Saudi state executed 81 men in one day, shortly before last year’s grand prix. Afterwards the UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, reported the UN believed that, of the 81 convicted of “terror offences”, 41 were from the Shia minority who had taken part in anti-government protests, calling for greater political participation.
Mustafa al-Khayyat was one of the 81 men. On Thursday his brother Yasser al-Khayyat wrote to the F1 chief executive, Stefano Domenicali, asserting that he had been executed for nothing more than taking part in pro-democracy protests and argued that F1’s presence in the Kingdom had emboldened the authorities to act brutally and without compunction.
“They use the spectacle of this sporting championship to distract from the murder of my brother and hundreds of others,” he wrote. “The grand prix carrying on as normal, without even mentioning the atrocities that have just been committed on that same soil, legitimises these heinous crimes.
“Silence is complicity. It is how the regime gets away with its atrocities and suppresses calls for democratic reforms. If you truly want Formula One to be an agent for change, rather than a tool to ‘sportswash’ Saudi abuses, please end Formula One’s silence.”
Khayyat was moved to write to Domenicali after the Italian extensively put his case to the Guardian that F1 could affect positive change in repressive regimes by exerting its “soft power” and engaging with the authorities.
“F1 is much stronger to do what we are doing because we are there, to be there to monitor what they are doing,” Domenicali said. “I truly believe in keeping the pressure in the right way, because what I have learned is that if you want to be respected by people who think differently from you, the best way is not to shout at them. We don’t have to create barriers.”
However Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented the state’s “brutal crackdown on peaceful dissidents” since Mohammed bin Salman was appointed crown prince, a claim supported by Khayyat, who no longer lives in Saudi Arabia and said he would fear for his life were he to have written the letter while still there.
“This is a regime that silently kills its people; trying, convicting, sentencing and executing them in complete secrecy,” he wrote. “The silence of bodies like Formula One enables this violence and bloodshed. Formula One’s partnership with the regime has coincided with an acceleration of executions.”
This position was backed by Maya Foa, the director of the human rights group Reprieve who also took the sport to task.
“This weekend’s race takes place at a time when executions are spiking again, with 13 that we know of in the last two weeks,” said Foa. “This shows how emboldened Mohammed bin Salman’s regime has become, confident that it can rely on F1’s silence. This is a regime that executes pro-democracy protesters, innocent drug mules and child defendants, and each time F1 races in the Kingdom and fails to acknowledge this, it makes the next mass execution more likely.”
Last year the race at Jeddah was not only overshadowed by the mass executions but also by a missile strike by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on an oil facility near to the track. The drivers almost boycotted the meeting as a result but were persuaded to stay having been given assurances by F1 and the government.
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Lewis Hamilton, who has been outspoken in his demands for F1 to address issues in some of the states it visits, has said he was not comfortable racing in Saudi Arabia. Before this year’s season opener in Bahrain he reiterated his belief that F1 had a “duty” to make a positive impact and insisted the sport needed to do more.
Khayyat echoed his words in his plea to Domenicali. “The only way to bring about change is to pressure the Saudi authorities to end these human rights abuses. Formula One has an opportunity to do that this week and I am pleading with you not to waste it,” he wrote.
When asked to comment on the letter an F1 spokesperson responded: “We take our responsibilities very seriously and have made our position on human rights and other issues clear to all our partners and host countries who commit to respect human rights in the way their events are hosted and delivered. We are proud of all our partnerships and look forward to building on those in the years ahead.”
