Saudi Arabia: Capital Punishment

(asked on 19th October 2017) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2017 to Question 107296, on Saudi Arabia: capital punishment, what recent representations he has made to his Saudi counterpart on the alleged use of torture to extract confessions.


Answered by
Alistair Burt Portrait
Alistair Burt
This question was answered on 27th October 2017

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is aware of a number of human rights cases, including people facing the death penalty, in Saudi Arabia. In death penalty cases, we do all we can to ascertain the facts. We continue to monitor cases closely and raise them with the Saudi authorities at every possible opportunity. I raised our human rights concerns with Saudi authorities during my visit to Riyadh on 15 October. We receive a number of representations on these issues from a variety of human rights NGOs, and we do not shy away from raising human rights concerns and believe we will be more successful in effecting change by discussing cases privately with Saudi Arabia than through public criticism. Saudi Arabia remains a Foreign & Commonwealth Office human rights priority country.

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