Jim Sheridan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Sheridan on 2014-06-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the president of Sudan regarding the death sentence given to Meriam Yehya Ibrahim.

Mark Simmonds

The President of Sudan is indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and has refused to cooperate. In common with other EU countries, we have a policy of having no contact with fugitives from the ICC unless it is essential. However, we have raised Meriam’s conviction in the strongest terms with Sudanese Ministers, including by summoning the Chargé d’Affaires to the Foreign Office on 19 May, at the request of the Foreign Secretary. Immediately following her conviction, I released a statement describing her conviction as barbaric and calling upon the Government of Sudan to respect the right to freedom of religion and international human rights laws as enshrined in its own constitution. The Parliamentary-Under Secretary of State at the Department for International Development, my Hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Ms Featherstone), also raised this issue with the Foreign Minister of Sudan on 20 May.