Detained International, a legal advocacy NGO, has organised a protest vigil outside BBC headquarters in London on Monday, September 19, 2022, in rejection to the participation of MENA’s repressive regimes leaders at Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Slaman (MBS) and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and others.
The event was held at 4 pm (London time) amid large participation of human rights activists and former political prisoners in Gulf prisons.
Banners reading “killers are not welcome in the UK” were raised during the protest.
Leading human rights lawyer and founder of Detained International David Hague said during the funeral that the event mainly aims “to highlight our protest against the presence of many Arab leaders including Dubai ruler Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Bahraini King Hamad, as well as Mohammed bin Salman at the Queen’s funeral.”
As a British person, I found these people being invited to such a prestigious event as horrific and unacceptable, he added.
The ruler of Dubai, Hague continued, has violated British law by virtue of a court ruling issued by a British court.
Yet, he was warmly welcomed on the red carpet of the most important event of the century, the British lawyer added, warning that such “a warm welcome will encourage these people to commit further violations of the law.”
The same thing applies to other Gulf leaders, including Mohammed bin Salman and King Hamad… We should not welcome people who break the laws around the world, torture their people, and commit crimes in Yemen, he concluded.
The Finnish activist Tiina Jauhiainen, who was one of the UAE regime victims after being detained in UAE jails for helping Sheikha Latifa to flee her home arrest imposed by her father Dubai ruler, also participated in the protest.
Tiina expressed her total rejection to Mohammed bin Salman and Mohammed bin Rashid’s visit to the UK and their participation at the Queen’s funeral or any other important events over their poor human rights record.
Tiina also pointed out to her 2018 detention in UAE jails, when she tried to help Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid’s daughter, Sheikha Latifa, to escape from her house arrest. However, they were both detained off the Indian coast.
I was kidnapped and held as a prisoner for weeks, so I know what people suffer at the hands of these regimes, she added.
Other activists have welcomed Mohammed bin Salman’s decision to cancel his UK visit but stressed the importance of holding him accountable for the journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, and the growing human rights violations at home and abroad.
The protesters stressed that these dictators have realised that “there is no place for them in the UK and they cannot whitewash their brutal human rights record… These tyrants are not welcome here.”
