London, June 20: A British court has on Thursday ruled the United Kingdom (UK) government exploited a law by permitting arms exports to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, expected might have been benefited in raging Yemen war.
According to Reuters news reports, the court’s decision does not mean the UK government has to immediately cease the arms exports to Saudi Arabia but asks the government to reconsider the matter on granting of next arms exports licenses to the Kingdom.
As the court handed the ruling down, judge Terence Etherton said, “The Court of Appeal has concluded that the process of decision-making by the government was wrong in law in one significant respect.”
The judge further added the British government made “no concluded assessments of whether the Saudi-led coalition had committed violations of international humanitarian law in the past, during the Yemen conflict”.
The Campaign Against the Arms Trade has brought the case to a British court against the government.
“The decision of the court today does not mean that licenses to export arms to Saudi Arabia must immediately be suspended,” he said.
“It does mean that the UK government must reconsider the matter, must make the necessary assessments about past episodes of concern, allowing for the fact that, in some cases, it will not be possible to reach a conclusion.”
The Campaign Against Arms Trade’s Andrew Smith said the Kingdom is one of the most repressive and brutal in the world, yet it has been, for decades, the largest imported of British-made arms. He added, “The arms sale must stop immediately.”