Several civil society groups, including Amnesty International, the League of Human Rights (LDH), and the Vredesactie peace movement, filed a criminal complaint against Belgian arms manufacturer FN Herstal sometime in January, the groups confirmed.
The associations accuse the arms company, which is wholly owned by the Walloon Region, of having continued to export weapons to Saudi Arabia under the guise of export licences that had already been cancelled by the Council of State, the CNAPD told the Belga news agency.
The official criminal complaint, of which the groups will act as the civil party, was submitted to an examining magistrate in Liège. According to Amnesty International Belgium, FN Herstal actively exported weaponry to Saudi Arabia, despite a ban on shipments due to suspected war crimes committed by the Saudi army in the Yemeni Civil War.
FN Herstal has exported small arms and ammunition to every dictatorial regime imaginable. FN Herstal fire arms have ended up in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libya and in the hands of drug lords in Mexico.#WarProfiteers pic.twitter.com/k7MsR6jFfB
— Vredesactie vzw (@Vredesactie) November 28, 2019
A 2019 Lighthouse Reports investigation proved that Belgian-made FN F2000 automatic weapons were being used, not only by troops of the Saudi border guard but also actively by military forces fighting across Yemen in the Saudi-led intervention of the Yemeni civil war.
The lawsuit notably alleges that FN Herstal continued to sell weapons to a state that was likely to commit serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, Amnesty International reports.
“FN Herstal… took the risk of being complicit in war crimes committed by the coalition led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen,” the annual report of the NGO, published last month, said.
FN Herstal is not the only company to be involved in arms scandals in recent years.
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Despite having its licence suspended by the Walloon government, Belgian armoured vehicle manufacturer John Cockerill delivered 136 LAV-700 gun turrets to Saudi Arabia via Canada between 2019-2020. The company described criticism of its sales to Saudi Arabia as “repeated attacks on its integrity.”
Machine-tooling company New Lachausée was also found to have made ammunition production offers to Russian companies under international sanctions in 2020-2021. The company is 20% owned by the Walloon region.
