Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-12-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Saudi Arabian counterpart on the case of Abdullah al-Zaher.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The British Government is very concerned about the case of Abdullah al-Zaher. We have raised this case at a senior level in the Government of Saudi Arabia. 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”. We take every opportunity to make the Saudi authorities aware of our views.