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On the afternoon of October 2, 2018, prominent Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents necessary for his upcoming marriage. That was the last time his fiancée saw him.

Saudi agents murdered Khashoggi inside the consulate and then hacked his body to pieces.

It was hardly a rogue operation. A UN investigation in 2019 highlighted “significant government coordination, resources and finances” behind the killing. In 2021, US intelligence concluded Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself had approved the operation. However, no high-level Saudi official has ever been held accountable.

Saudi state involvement included the agents being flown to and from their hit job in Istanbul in two planes from Sky Prime Aviation, a charter jet company owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). The PIF is the government-controlled sovereign wealth fund with approximately US$620 billion in assets under management.

Which brings us to, of all things, professional golf…

This week, the PIF essentially took control of the sport globally, merging its own LIV Golf group with the Professional Golf Association (PGA). The PGA Tour announced “a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity” and said the “PIF will initially be the exclusive investor in the new entity.”

Apparently, the PGA Tour forgot how, in a US court case in September, it had openly accused LIV Golf of trying “to sportswash the recent history of Saudi atrocities.” In the new merger deal, the parties have agreed to end all pending legal actions between them.

Saudi Arabia spends billions on sports and entertainment events trying to get the world to forget about its appalling human rights record and horrors like its murder and butchery of Jamal Khashoggi.

Evidently, the PGA Tour changed its position for financial gain, but the group’s hypocrisy is staggering. In just a few short months, they went from criticizing Saudi atrocities and rejecting Saudi sportswashing to fully collaborating with it.

But all the money and all the golf tours in the world won’t make people forget Saudi brutality. Saudi authorities may think they’re cleaning up their reputation by associating with the PGA, but in fact, all people will see is the PGA wrecking its own reputation by associating with Saudi rulers.

A new law in Poland is a disaster for democracy.

The legislation creates a powerful new commission that can ban people from public office and running for elections. Formed under the prime minister’s office and with its chair appointed by the prime minister, the commission will no doubt be packed with ruling party folks.

It’s essentially a recipe for decimating political opposition, and the latest outrage in the government’s years-long democratic backsliding that has led to large-scale protests in Poland.

The ruling party’s stated aim in creating the new commission is to root out alleged Russian influence in public affairs. It will investigate judges, prosecutors, members of the military, journalists, and individuals from civil society groups for evidence of Kremlin connections.

Or even no evidence at all – because what exactly constitutes “Russian influence” is not defined in the law. It will likely be whatever the ruling party says it is.

To make matters worse, the commission’s decisions cannot be appealed on their merits. It’s a clear violation of your right to a fair trial.

In response to criticism of the law from the EU and US, Poland’s ruling party has made some last-minute amendments, which are currently before parliament. However, these changes are not enough to reduce the risk of the law being used to prevent opposition politicians from holding office.

Fixing this mess requires action by a different commission: the European Commission. Yesterday, it launched new legal action against Poland for this violation of EU law. It was the right move – and exactly what we and others have been calling for.

Poland’s ruling party now needs to wake up and repeal its anti-democratic law.

(written by Lisa Maier) 

Angolan police shot and killed at least five people in Huambo province on Monday during a taxi drivers’ protest against a recent fuel-price increase.  

The protesters were unarmed, yet police tried to justify their actions by saying they had to contain “acts of violence” and that police killings were unavoidable. 

When is shooting unarmed people with live bullets NOT avoidable?

This wasn’t an isolated incident. In recent years, and despite some attempts to improve, Angolan law enforcement officers have continued to use disproportionate and excessive force, leading to many deaths. 

Most times, unlawful killings have gone unpunished. Angolan security forces act as if they have a license to kill anyone who dares to challenge the government.

Now, the authorities need to impartially investigate and prosecute the killings as a first step to instill respect for human rights among its security forces. 

(compiled by Lisa Maier)

• Wildfire smoke in North America threatens pregnancy rights (HRW) 
• Japan court falls short of calling same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional (The Guardian) 
• Myanmar: lawyers face harassment and arrests (HRW) 
• How much plastic is in our oceans? (Al Jazeera)

Last month in this newsletter, we looked at “The Power of One Man in Russia,” Oleg Orlov, a prominent and outspoken human rights defender.

Russian authorities have been attacking Orlov ceaselessly on the most ridiculous grounds. Their absurd over-reaction to his single-person anti-war pickets and his social media posts criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine reveals a level of paranoia that says much about the Kremlin’s downward-spiraling authoritarian mentality.

Today, a court in Moscow will hold its first hearing in the criminal trial against Orlov. He faces up to three years’ imprisonment under Russia’s draconian war censorship legislation for repeatedly speaking out against the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

My colleague, Tanya Lokshina, Associate Director in HRW’s Europe and Central Asia Division, has known Orlov for more than two decades. She’s written an informative yet personal Dispatch on Orlov and the case, which I encourage you to read in full. The final three paragraphs I reproduce here:

Orlov’s been through indiscriminate shelling, a kidnapping, death threats, the Russian government’s staggering crackdown on critics, and its punitive liquidation of [human rights group] Memorial. Nothing could stop him from his life’s work confronting injustice, exposing crimes by authorities, and assisting civilians who bore the brunt of abusive wars and so-called “counter terrorism operations.”

Earlier this year, when the government launched its criminal case against him, they did not lock him up. He could have fled abroad, as many Kremlin critics have done in the face of raging repression. But, a man of uncompromising principle, Orlov remained.

It would be naïve to expect the authorities to drop the case against him. But we should do our utmost to raise the costs of this politically motivated prosecution and to support a true hero who is standing up to Kremlin’s repression.

Read Tanya’s whole Dispatch.