Commenting on news that the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series have agreed to a merger, Sibusiso Khasa, Amnesty International South Africa campaigner, said:
“While this may have taken some golf fans and commentators by surprise, it’s really just more evidence of the onward march of Saudi sportswashing.
“It’s been clear for some time that Saudi Arabia was prepared to use vast amounts of money to muscle its way into top-tier golf – just part of a wider effort to become a major sporting power and to try to distract attention from the country’s atrocious human rights record.
“Away from the glamour of the golf courses and the TV cameras there’s been mounting repression in Saudi Arabia, with government critics and human rights activists arrested, a spate of unfair trials, and with the death penalty widely used, including as a tool of political repression.
“Last year alone, the Saudi authorities executed 196 people, the highest number for at least 30 years, and the Leeds University PhD student Salma al-Shehab was given a long jail sentence for tweeting her support for Saudi women’s rights activists.
“The world of golf may be about to put one of its most high-profile commercial battles behind it, but it’s vital that this latest surge in Saudi sportswashing isn’t allowed to obscure the increasingly dire human rights situation in Saudi Arabia.”
Background
For more information or to request an interview, please contact:
Genevieve Quintal, Media and Communications Officer , Amnesty International South Africa: +27 (0) 64 890 9224; genevieve.quintal@amnesty.org.za
Public Document
****************************************
Amnesty International South Africa office, 97 Oxford Road, Saxonwold, Johannesburg, 2196
