By Joey Millar
Following a long campaign by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), the £2.8bn deal with the Arab state will now be investigated.
While Britain has many arms deals with nations across the globe, complaints about Saudi Arabia human rights abuses have made the two countries’ deal particularly controversial.
Saudi Arabia has been part of a massive bombing campaign in Yemen in a bid to quash a rebellion. Thousands of civilians are thought to have been killed in the raids, including one using British-made cluster bombs last May.
On Wednesday, High Court judge Mr. Justice Gilbart said there was "abundant evidence of breaches of international humanitarian law" by Saudi Arabia and the arms deal with Britain must be investigated.
He said: "The Secretary of State has not stated whether or not he accepts that there were breaches as shown in these reports by the UN, NGOs and others.
"It is unclear to me whether the Secretary of State’s case is he disputes them or not."
Since Mr. Cameron became Prime Minister, Britain’s arm exports with Saudi Arabia has totaled £6.8bn - including £2.8bn since the campaign against Yemen began.
A CAAT spokesman said: "This is a historic decision and we welcome the fact that arms exports to Saudi Arabia will be given the full scrutiny of a legal review, but they should never have been allowed in the first place.
"The fact that UK aircraft and bombs are being used against Yemen is a terrible sign of how broken the arms export control system is.
"For too long government has focused on maximising and promoting arms sales, rather than on the human rights of those they are used against."
