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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the Egyptian government on the death penalty imposed on Ibrahim Mohammed Helal and other journalists in that country.

Mr Philip Hammond

We regularly raise our concerns over press freedoms with the Egyptian authorities both in London and in Cairo. The Prime Minister, the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) raised the detention of journalists with President Sisi during his visit to the UK in November 2015. I raised press freedoms and freedom of expression with the Egyptian Ambassador in April, and these concerns are expanded upon in the Human Rights Priority Country report on Egypt which was published on 21 April. It is a long term policy of the UK Government to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle and we have raised this with the Egyptian Government. There are further stages in the legal process and we will continue to monitor the case.