Trump’s Visit to Saudi Arabia: Where Human Rights Are the First Casualty
While the United States continues to claim its commitment to defending freedoms and human rights around the world, President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia made it clear that these values mean nothing when measured against arms deals and investment opportunities. During the visit, economic and military agreements exceeding $600 billion were announced, while systematic human rights violations against activists, dissidents, and ordinary citizens continue unabated in Saudi Arabia—met with deafening American silence and complicity.
Among the key outcomes of the visit was a massive $142 billion arms deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, covering advanced offensive and defensive systems and expanding military cooperation. The deal, one of the largest in the history of bilateral relations, comes at a time when Saudi authorities continue to use weaponry to suppress internal dissent and wage brutal campaigns against civilians in conflict zones. The signing of such a deal sends a chilling message: Washington is indifferent to how these weapons are used—even if they serve repression and bloodshed. In doing so, the U.S. positions itself not as a partner in peace, but as a facilitator of violence.
Just days before Trump’s arrival, Saudi courts sentenced British citizen Ahmed Al-Doush to 10 years in prison over a deleted tweet—an act that reflects the Saudi regime’s increasing boldness in cracking down on free expression, empowered by unwavering support from its international allies. Al-Doush’s case is not an isolated incident, but part of a broader pattern of repression that includes more than 2,000 prisoners of conscience, including thinkers, lawyers, women’s rights activists, and youth who have been denied the most basic legal rights.
This visit also comes nearly five years after the CIA publicly concluded that the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 was carried out on the direct orders of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Yet no real accountability followed. Instead, the Saudi regime was seamlessly reintegrated into the international arena—greeted once again as a “strategic partner” and hosted with honours.
Meanwhile, the toll inside Saudi prisons continues to rise. Documented reports show that at least 15 detainees have died since early 2023 due to medical neglect, torture, and inhumane conditions. Dozens of others remain forcibly disappeared—held in secret locations, with no access to legal counsel or contact with their families. These are not isolated abuses; they constitute crimes against humanity.
Despite this grim reality, no serious discussions have taken place in international forums regarding Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. Victims are excluded from any platform or opportunity to voice their suffering. Dialogue is replaced by deals, justice by silence, and morality by money.
Today, the Saudi regime is welcomed globally—not because it respects the law or pursues reform, but because it is rich. Meanwhile, human rights defenders are sidelined, locked away, and threatened into silence.
Together for Justice affirms that the United States’ and the broader West’s silence—and active engagement—with the Saudi regime amid ongoing human rights violations represents a blatant betrayal of the principles they claim to uphold. Justifying these crimes in the name of “interests” only deepens the stain of complicity and amplifies the suffering of thousands of innocents.
Accordingly, Together for Justice calls for an immediate end to this political hypocrisy, the unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience, international investigations into assassinations, torture, and forced disappearances, and the imposition of real legal sanctions against all those involved—or complicit—in these crimes.
