Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment the UK Government has made of the legal basis of the sentencing to death of Ahmed Saddouma in Egypt.

It remains a long-standing policy of the United Kingdom to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle. We have regularly made our position clear to the Egyptian Government.

Our Embassy in Cairo has raised with the Egyptian authorities our concerns about Article 122 of the Child Law, which allows certain juveniles to be tried as adults, as well as the case of Ahmed Saddouma. The Egyptian authorities have told us they are looking into this and similar cases, in addition to our wider concerns about Article 122. We have also engaged with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) on this issue; our Embassy arranged for Reprieve to brief representatives of other EU Member States in Cairo on this subject last year.