Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-01-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the government of Saudi Arabia about the death sentence of Abdullah al-Zaher.

Mr Philip Hammond

The British Government is very concerned about the case of Abdullah al-Zaher. The British Government has regularly raised this case, as well as the cases of the other two minors arrested with him, with the Saudi Arabian authorities at a senior level. We will continue to follow these cases closely and raise our concerns. The UK opposes the death penalty in all circumstances and in every country, especially in cases which do not meet the minimum standards defined by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This includes the execution of a minor and the use of the death penalty for a crime which isn’t deemed “the most serious”.