Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-09-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what evidence his Department has received in support of allegations that the Bahrain Ombudsman’s investigation into Mohammad Ramadan’s has not met international minimum standards for a torture investigation; and what assessment he has made of that evidence.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
The United Nations Convention Against Torture requires all states to conduct prompt and impartial investigations into allegations of torture within their jurisdiction. We therefore welcome the Ombudsman’s decision to conduct an investigation into the complaints regarding Mohammad Ramadan, and await the outcome of the investigation. Since the announcement of the Ombudsman’s investigation, we have received non-governmental organisation representations regarding these allegations, and are aware of similar representations made to the Ombudsman. We take all such allegations seriously. It is therefore important that investigations into allegations of torture are prompt and impartial, and we are encouraging the Ombudsman to carry out a swift investigation.
The Bahraini Ombudsman is an independent oversight institution, and we will continue to follow and support its work. I raised the case of Mohammad Ramadan with the Bahraini Ambassador on 8 March, and our Embassy Manama officials have raised the progress of the investigation several times directly with the Ombudsman’s office, the most recent being 4 August.
