Gregory Campbell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-05-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to his Egyptian counterpart about the mass trial of and death sentences on members of the Muslim brotherhood.

Hugh Robertson

In a meeting with the Egyptian Foreign Minister on 2 April, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague) raised his concern over the death sentences imposed on 529 people. He asked the Egyptian Government to review these issues as a matter of urgency and to ensure that individuals’ human and legal rights were properly upheld.

The Foreign Secretary also made a statement on 28 April expressing deep concerns that a further 683 people had been sentenced to death by the same court and that 37 of the original death sentences handed down on 24 March had been upheld. He expressed concern at the potential negative impact of such sentences on the Egyptian Government’s ability to take forward an inclusive political process, and urged that the sentences be reviewed. We will continue to raise this issue in our conversations with the Egyptian Government.