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Whitehall broke court order with exports to Saudi troops in Yemen
Protesters celebrate outside the Royal Courts of Justice, London, after winning a landmark legal challenge at the Court of Appeal over the Government's decision to continue to allow arms sales to Saudi Arabia in June

THE British government approved a series of arms sales to Saudi Arabia in breach of a court ruling, a Tory minister has conceded.

Liz Truss MP, secretary of state for international trade, told Parliament’s arms export controls committee in a letter on Monday that Whitehall had made “two inadvertent breaches.” 

Under a Court of Appeal judgment, the government was barred from granting “any new licences for the export of arms or military equipment to Saudi Arabia for possible use in the conflict in Yemen,” until a new risk assessment had been carried out.

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