Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-09-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations his Department has received on reports of the use of ammunition produced and exported by Primetake, a company based in Lincolnshire, to kill Abdul-Rahim al-Faraj by security forces in Saudi Arabia; and whether he plans to investigate such reports.

Sir Alan Duncan

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is aware of claims by Mr al-Faraj’s family that ammunition produced in the UK was used in the incident that killed him. The UK Government takes decisions on all arms export licensing applications on the basis of close and careful consideration, assessing them against the EU and National Consolidated Arms Export Licensing Criteria, which includes an assessment of whether there is a clear risk that the items might be used for internal repression.

The Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman stated that Mr al-Faraj was suspected of previously killing security forces personnel and indicated that substantial arms and ammunition were found on the premises during the operation.