Government departments have been actively — even aggressively — steering U.K. businesses into bidding for contracts with the Saudis in the health, justice, defense, and security sectors, according to documents seen by the Observer.

"It's becoming increasingly clear that ministers are bent on ever-closer ties with the world's most notorious human rights abusers," said Maya Foa, who directs the death penalty team at Reprieve. "Ministers must urgently come clean about the true extent of our agreements with Saudi Arabia and other repressive regimes."

As three young Saudis, Ali Mohammad al-Nimr, Abdullah al-Zaher, and Dawoud al-Marhoon face beheading and crucifixion — and another blogger, Raif Badawi, essentially receives a drawn-out death sentence of 1,000 lashes — the U.S. and U.K. governments have been barraged with criticism for continuing political relations. Perhaps inflaming the issue more, according to the Guardian, several of the "most important Saudi contracts" fell under the Overseas Security and Justice Assistance Policy (OSJA) — meant to establish U.K.'s security and justice dealings as "consistent with a foreign policy based on British values, including human rights."