Over 250 police officers from Saudi Arabia have been recently specially trained by the UK College of Policing.

Human rights groups asked authorities to disclose the type of training provided.

Apparently, as described in a contract as an income generating business opportunity, the college taught the study of forensics and criminality to Saudi officers as part of a trusted professional partnership. It plans to include cyber security, mobile telephony tracking and video surveillance systems.

The training would apparently meet the highest international human rights standards but the documents available show that the College of Police Services noted that there was a risk that the skills acquired would be used to identify those who later were tortured or subjected to other violations of human rights. The chain of command, however, refused to answer and it refused to disclose how much revenue it receives from Saudi Arabia for police training.

It is clear that the reason why the college did not discuss the details of specialized training is because having agreements with GCC countries exposes them to serious human rights violations like Saudi Arabia.

It is truly shameful that the British police trains Saudis with techniques they admit privately, leading people to be arrested, tortured and sentenced to death only to target pro-democracy activists and human rights defenders.

Finally, it is evident today that there are close links between certain unclear Western powers such as the USA and the UK which finance, train and arm countries with barbaric practices and violate human rights.

ICSFT urges the UK to stop training Saudi officers and to contribute to the fight tond human rights violations in Saudi Arabia and in the Gulf countries. ICSFT condemns Saudi Arabia’s crimes against peaceful activists and human rights defenders and calls for a fair and transparent judiciary. ICSFT firmly condemns arms sale deals between western powers and the GCC. These agreements contribute to accentuate violence and deteriorate human rights; the UK and US cannot at the same time condemn the acts of the Saudis while at the same time providing them with weapons.