Persian Gulf states slammed for sports-washing rights abuses

Bianca Rahimi
Press TV, London

Mercedes' British driver Lewis Hamilton (C) looks on during the first day of the Formula One (F1) pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit in the city of Sakhir, in Bahrain, on March 12, 2021. (Photo by AFP)

Over the weekend, Bahrain hosted yet another Formula 1 Grand Prix. British athlete Lewis Hamilton added to his well-deserved fame by winning the first race of 2021. But in the run-up to the event, Hamilton used his platform to raise awareness about human rights abuses in Bahrain.

In November, he received a letter from the son of Bahraini political prisoner Ahmed Ramadan asking for the athlete to help save his father from execution. Rights groups say he confessed under torture, a common tactic used against Bahraini prisoners. Hamilton has since spoken to lawyers, Amnesty International, and the Bahraini ambassador.

Civil servant Najah Yusuf was jailed in 2017 for demanding the Grand Prix be canceled. That year, the event went ahead regardless, and for the next three years Yusuf was denied legal representation, raped, and psychologically tortured in prison.

Ahead of this year’s event, 61 British MPs urged Formula 1’s new CEO to establish an independent inquiry into abuses linked to the Bahrain Grand Prix and to meet with victims and rights groups before the race with a view to securing their compensation. Needless to say, that did not happen.

Now Formula 1 has signed a ten-year 650-million-dollar deal with Saudi Arabia, which, according to human rights organization Grant Liberty, has spent at least 1.5 billion dollars on sports washing, hosting Formula E, the Dakar Rally, wrestling, tennis, the Spanish and Italian Super Cups and European Tour golf over the last two years.

Amnesty International says like all of them, Formula 1 will be used to sports-wash the kingdom’s "appalling" human rights record, let alone the Saudi-led war on Yemen, which has killed and displaced hundreds of thousands of people and pushed it to the brink of famine.