F1 faces calls to quit Saudi Arabia while prisoner’s family asks Hamilton to help

The human rights group Reprieve has demanded Formula One ends its association with Saudi Arabian sportswashing after the family of a teenager sentenced to death wrote to Lewis Hamilton pleading with him to speak out on their son’s behalf before this weekend’s race.

In documents sent from Abdullah al-Howaiti’s prison cell and seen by the Guardian, he cites the torture and abuse he says he has suffered at the hands of the Saudi authorities as F1 once more prepares to race in the country which recently carried out 81 executions in a single day. In a report issued in January, a group of UN experts classified some of Saudi Arabia’s violations of international law as potentially “crimes against humanity” as the state continues to execute minors.

When Saudi Arabia held its first grand prix last year Hamilton was critical of F1’s decision to race there. “Do I feel comfortable here? I wouldn’t say I do,” he said. “But it’s not my choice to be here, the sport has taken the choice to be here.”

Howaiti was arrested when he was 14, accused of the robbery of a jewellery store during which a policeman was killed. His family maintain, with CCTV evidence and written statements from witnesses, that he was nowhere near the store at the time but with friends.

He has stated in diary entries from prison seen exclusively by the Guardian that after arrest he was repeatedly tortured until he signed a blank piece of paper as a confession.

“He continued beating me, and every time I took my foot off the table, he beat me on my body until I passed out. He poured water on my face and turned on the air conditioning on cold and made me stand against it for half an hour,” Howaiti records , and also states that he was forced to participate in torturing