UK arms exports to Saudi Arabia can continue, high court rules

Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) launched the high-profile judicial review of the government's decision to continue granting weapons-export licences to the country despite widespread concern over the civilian death toll of its campaign in Yemen.

Delivering an open judgment in the high court in London, Lord Justice Burnett, who heard the case with Justice Haddon-Cave, said: "We have concluded that the material decisions of the secretary of state were lawful. We therefore dismiss the claim."

The judgment was "necessarily long and rather dense", he said. The court is also handing down a closed judgment, following a case in which half of the evidence was heard in secret after the government argued it contained sensitive information that could not be heard in public for national security reasons. Saudi Arabia, UK's largest weapons client, has bought more than £3bn of British arms in the two years. UK and EU arms sales rules state that export licences cannot be granted if there is a "clear risk" involved.