Karin Smyth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karin Smyth on 2015-10-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the consistency with domestic Ethiopian and international law on the right to a fair trial of the sentences imposed on Andargachew Tsege by the Ethiopian authorities in 2009 and 2011.

James Duddridge

The Government remains deeply concerned by the continued detention of Mr Andargachew Tsege. Extensive Ministerial lobbying resulted in Mr Tsege’s transfer to a normal federal prison in July. The Prime Minister wrote to the Ethiopian Prime Minister on 17 August welcoming this move, emphasising that this should allow regular consular access, and visits by Mr Tsege’s family. The release of video footage of Mr Tsege in July 2014 and January 2015 was not raised in the letter. We continue to press the Ethiopian government for regular consular access, for improvements to Mr Tsege’s welfare and to provide a legal process through which Mr Tsege can challenge his detention, including its consistency with domestic and international law. My Rt Hon Friend, the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Philip Hammond MP), Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, has raised this case on 17 separate occasions with the Ethiopians.