Suing Saudi

[jack]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1485587,00.html

Two British men were spuriously arrested and tortured in Saudi Arabia. Now released they've been allowed to sue the Saudi govt in the British courts, potentially seizing any non-diplomatic-immunitied Saudi assets in payment -- including payment for costs, which they've already been awarded.

I had three successive reactions:

(1) Oh fuck. Sometimes you forget what awful things happen. I hope they succeed.

(2) Who's going to get the job of impounding a Saudi plane? Will they auction it off or what? Your average repo man might be out of his leage here.

(3) It sounds like a good idea *this* way round, but people would scream blue murder if a $Elbonian was arrested in England for murder which wasn't a crime in $Elbonia, and sued our govt for false imprisonment in $Elbonia, and $Elbonia impounded british assets.

Comments

[edith-the-hutt.livejournal.com]

On the other hand if the crime was something spurious and the British Government acted in a manner which violated several treaties which $Elbonia and Britain were both signitories and then proceeded to block any means of reparation through the British courts... people would still scream blue murder in the name of patriotism. But they might have less of a moral or legal high-ground to do it from.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

The British government presumably tries avoid putting anything valuable within the reach of countries with wacky legal systems that might lead to it being seized for bad reasons. (Mind you, personally I would like to avoid going to countries with evil legal systems like Saudi for similar reasons and that didn't stop the people in question.)