Yemen group takes crown prince of Saudi Arabia to court in Paris
PARIS (Reuters) – A rights group filed a lawsuit against Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman during his visit to France on Tuesday, accusing him of complicity in torture and inhumane treatment in Yemen, lawyers said.
The complaint on behalf of Taha Hussein Mohamed, director of the Legal Center for Rights and Development, said the prince, who is Saudi Arabia’s defense minister, was responsible for civilian deaths in Yemen.
The case was filed in a Paris court as pressure grows on President Emmanuel Macron to curb arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which spearhead a coalition fighting Iran-aligned Houthi rebels who control of most of northern Yemen.
The Saudi-led coalition regularly denies it targets civilians.
The rights group, based in the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital Sanaa, says on its website it monitors and documents rights’ violations in Yemen.
“He ordered the first bombings on Yemeni territory on March 25, 2015,” the group’s lawyers, Joseph Breham and Hakim Chergui, said in the complaint seen by Reuters.
“The existence of indiscriminate shelling by the coalition armed forces affecting civilian populations in Yemen can be qualified as acts of torture.”
The lawsuit may embarrass Macron at a delicate moment in French-Saudi relations. France is the world’s third biggest arms exporter and counts the kingdom as one of its biggest buyers.
The lawyers cited UN and rights group reports on arbitrary detentions and the use of illegal cluster bombs.
Authorities will now begin studying the suit and decide whether there is a basis to take further legal action. If the case follows the usual course, the prince would be informed of the legal action, but there would be no move to make him attend a hearing or detain him.
The Yemen conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than three million – more than 10% of the population.
The complaint also accuses the coalition of depriving millions of people of access to basic necessities due to indiscriminate bombings and a naval blockade of Yemeni ports. The war has pushed the country to the brink of famine.
Coalition air strikes targeting Houthi fighters have frequently hit civilian areas, although the alliance denies doing so intentionally. It also says it is providing financial support to help aid agencies and humanitarian groups to help civilians.
The lawyers said French courts were competent to handle the case in line with the UN convention against torture.
Seventy-five percent of French people want Macron to suspend arms exports to Gulf Arab states. Several rights groups have warned of possible legal action if the government does not halt its sales.