Henderson move was sports washing : Peter Frankental

Amnesty: Henderson move was sports washing

Peter Frankental, Amnesty International UK’s Economic Affairs Director, said: “Jordan Henderson is of course free to play football wherever he wishes, but it’s glaringly obvious that his move to Al-Ettifaq falls squarely within Saudi Arabia’s mega-money sportswashing project.

“Like other footballers who’ve made the move to Saudi Arabia, we’ve urged Henderson to counter the sportswashing effect and use his privileged status to speak out about human rights issues in the country.

“At the same time that it’s ramped up spending on overseas footballers, Saudi Arabia has cracked down on human rights at home, with peaceful activists jailed, as many as 196 people executed last year alone, and Jamal Khashoggi’s murder still the subject of a state cover-up.

“Just last week, news emerged that the retired teacher Mohammad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi has been sentenced to death by a Saudi court for his entirely peaceful remarks on Twitter and YouTube. Meanwhile, the Leeds University PhD student Salma al-Shehab is still languishing in jail after being given a decades-long sentence for tweeting her support for Saudi women’s rights activists.

“Having respect for a country’s religion and culture shouldn’t mean turning a blind eye to serious human rights violations like the criminalisation of homosexuality or the jailing of human rights defenders.

“We’re not expecting sporting figures like Henderson to reinvent themselves as human rights experts, but we’d ask them to publicly acknowledge the plight of people such as Salma al-Shehab and Mohammad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi whenever the opportunity arises.”