Human rights group ask LIV Golfers to help young man on Saudi death row

LIV Golf's Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Phil Mickelson have been asked by a UK human rights group to publicise the case of Abdullah Al-Howaiti who currently sits on death row in Saudi Arabia.

As reported by Riath Al-Samarrai of the Daily Mail, the 20-year-old claims he was tortured at the age of 14 to the point where he confessed to murdering a policeman.

Maya Foa, the director of Reprieve, issued a request for help from these three golfers in publicising a case that Human Rights Watch has previously described as "grossly unfair."

The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia is the majority shareholder in LIV Golf and the new breakaway series has previously been labelled a vehicle of sportswashing that deflects the conversation away from Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses.

"Abdullah Al-Howaiti was arrested when he was just 14 years old and sentenced to death when he was 17," Foa said in a statement to Sportsmail.

"Golfers in Jeddah for this weekend’s tournament have an opportunity to raise Abdullah’s case, knowing the world will hear. All we are asking Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Phil Mickelson to do is say his name.

"Just by doing so, they could save his life. Lewis Hamilton has shown elite athletes can raise human rights concerns while competing in Saudi Arabia.

"If the LIV Tour is to be a positive force for change in Saudi Arabia, British golfers must follow his example. Speaking up for Abdullah Al-Howaiti would be a start."

There is evidence which suggests Al-Howaiti was somewhere else when the policeman was killed in 2017 during a robbery of a jewellery store in Dubai.

Reprieve highlights this issue as yet another that Saudi Arabia has tried to cover up with sportswashing. The Kingdom has been accused of other abuses such as the deportation of migrant groups and imprisonment of political opposition.

"The Saudi regime’s massive investment in sports, from the Public Investment Fund’s purchase of Newcastle United to hosting boxing matches and Formula One, in addition to the LIV tour, has coincided with a capital punishment crisis in the kingdom," Foa added.

"More people were executed in the first six months of 2022 than in the previous two years combined.

"The gap between the rhetoric of the Saudi authorities and the reality on the ground is huge. For many years, they have been telling the world they have abolished the death penalty for children while continuing to execute and issue death sentences for childhood crimes."