Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure the safe release of the photographer Shahidul Alam from prison in Bangladesh.

I was deeply concerned by the violence we saw in Dhaka in response to road safety protests by students following the tragic deaths of two school age students on 29 July, and the subsequent arrest of Shahidul Alam. Joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development Minister Alistair Burt expressed UK concern regarding the response to the road safety protests, and raised Dr Alam's case, with the Government of Bangladesh, during his visit to Bangladesh from 28-31 August. The Foreign Secretary raised Dr Alam's case with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina when they met on 24 September at the UN General Assembley in New York.

Bangladesh remains a Human Rights Priority Country for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. We raised freedom of expression as a key concern in Bangladesh during the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review.