The Saudi government is well known for its efforts to improve its public image abroad through the practice of sportwashing. Sportwashing refers to the concerted efforts of the Saudi royal house to improve its international reputation by leveraging the vast wealth of their sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, to host large-scale sporting events.[…]
22
Jul
Jul
Football fans tuned in this summer to watch two of the sport’s major tournaments, the inaugural FIFA Club World Cup and the biennial Concacaf Gold Cup, yet few noted the powerful force operating behind the scenes: Saudi Arabia and its Public Investment Fund (PIF). As the Kingdom pours substantial financial resources into these events, accusations[…]
14
Jul
Jul
This year marks ten years since Saudi Arabia imprisoned Waleed Abu al-Khair, one of the country’s most prominent human rights lawyers, for peacefully speaking out in defense of justice and dignity. He was arrested in 2014 and sentenced to 15 years in prison after an unfair trial before the Specialised Criminal Court, which used anti-terrorism[…]
03
Jul
Jul
Saudi Arabia is accelerating its use of the death penalty with alarming speed. In 2024 alone, the Kingdom carried out 345 executions, the highest number in 30 years, averaging one every 25 hours. That brutal pace has only intensified. As of mid-June 2025, 154 executions have already been confirmed, pointing toward another record-breaking year. Among[…]
30
Jun
Jun
In 2014, Saudi journalist Turki al-Jasser warned in a tweet that his government was justifying executions under the guise of national security. In a grim outcome, al-Jasser met the very fate he foresaw. On 14 June 2025, Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry announced that al-Jasser had been executed following seven years of arbitrary detention on vague[…]
