Portland, Oregon – next Golf Championship with the support of Saudi cash Scheduled to kick off Thursday at an Oregon golf course has alarmed local politicians, golfers and the general public.
But the pain of the emerging scene is unique to the 15-year-old Fallon Smart family.
In August 2016, the high school student was crossing the street at an intersection in a popular area of southeast Portland when police said driver Abdul Rahman Samir Noura fatally hit her. The Saudi national, then 21, was in a gold Lexus traveling nearly 60 miles per hour, according to police records. Two weeks before facing trial on charges including manslaughter and reckless driving, Noura was last seen riding a black SUV before disappearing from the United States and eventually reappearing in Saudi Arabia, according to to me Oregonian.
The newspaper reported that a monitoring device for his severed ankle was found in a gravel yard.
There is no sense of closure, no sense of justice. Fallon’s father, Seth Smart, told The Daily Beast this week that those kinds of institutions that you believe in and believe in as an American — go out the window. “It is certainly frustrating to see and hear that there is not much will for people to utter nonsense about justice.”
The LIV Golf Invitation Series, funded by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, is offering massive sums of money to top players in a bid to lure them off the PGA Tour. The eight-event series will see $255 million in prize money, with each event holding a total purse of $55 million, according to to LIV Golf Investments, making it the richest tournament in golf history.
However, Smart said he hopes professional golfers will reconsider their participation. “I would like to see these famous athletes not just take the money, but think of their country. If you were a golfer in the States, you wouldn’t become a professional bubble golfer.”
Saudi Arabia has been criticized for attempting to “sport wash” into the kingdom’s long record of human rights violations, most notably the assassination of Saudi-American journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018. In addition to golf, the kingdom has invested hundreds of millions of dollars. of dollars in esports, auto racing and soccer. LIV Golf Investments did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Several members of Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, which is hosting the tournament on its first stop in the United States, have pulled out of the club in protest, according to Report by Willamette week. In North Plains, the small city on the outskirts of the Portland metro area that is home to Buckington Ridge, law enforcement is preparing for potential protests, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Northern Plains Mayor Terry Lenahan, along with 11 other mayors from surrounding areas, wrote a message To Escalante Golf, owner of the championship golf club. They cited Khashoggi’s murder, the kingdom’s public execution record, and Fallon’s killer’s escape from justice. Escalante Golf did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
“Not only does the occurrence of this event threaten the safety of our community, but it also puts pressure” on local law enforcement, the letter read. We oppose this event because it is sponsored by an oppressive government whose human rights abuses have been documented. We refuse to support these abuses by tacitly allowing the Saudi-backed organization to play in our backyard.”
US Senator Ron Wyden similarly decried the heroism, citing Fallon’s death and Saudi Arabia’s record in helping its citizens avoid facing charges in the United States. , in the fight for Oregonians to get justice,” he told The Associated Press. “Fallon Smart was killed near our home in southeast Portland, and the person accused of the hit-and-run murder, based on all the evidence, was taken out of the country by the Saudis before he could defend same experience.”
Prior to his disappearance, Abd al-Rahman Samir Noura was released on bail, was wearing a tracking device and did not have a passport. But the federal investigators said, Oregonian They believed that Saudi Arabia took him out on a private plane using a new passport, likely under a different name.
Saudi embassy officials did not respond to requests for comment, but in a 2019 statement to local media, the government actively denied helping its citizens escape prosecution. still , Investigation in the same year Oregonian It showed 25 cases of Saudi students who were studying in the United States facing criminal charges and then disappearing. The newspaper found seven students, in Oregon alone, who escaped while facing charges including rape, child sexual abuse and assault.
“All you have to do is get some money and you can get out of prison and live normally, while you ruin our lives. Smart said of Fallon’s loss.
Smart described his lost daughter as a bright, cheerful girl who loves animals, paints and sings in a quaint youthful choir. He said he still regularly has to quell his 11-year-old son’s tears over the loss of his sister.
“It’s hard, because it’s so painful, but you also don’t want to forget.”
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