Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 13 June 2016 to Question 39705, what assessment his Department has made of Ethiopa's progress on providing independent legal access for Andargachew Tsege.

​On 1 June 2016, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam assured the then Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), that Mr Tsege would be allowed access to independent legal advice to allow him to discuss options under the Ethiopian legal system. Since then, the Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Mr Johnson) has raised Mr Tsege's case with his Ethiopian counterpart, Foreign Minister Tedros, on 3 occasions, most recently during the UN General Assembly in New York, insisting that the Ethiopians follow through with their commitment to allow legal access. The British Government will continue to do so until Mr Tsege is given access to independent legal advice.