Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2014-06-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Sudan regarding the arrest of the National Umma Party leader al-Sadiq al-Mahdi.

Baroness Warsi

The Minister for Africa, my Hon. Friend the Member for Boston and Skegness (Mr Simmonds), wrote to Professor Ibrahim Ghandour, adviser to the Sudanese President, urging al-Sadiq al-Mahdi’s release. 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. Following the arrest, the British Embassy in Khartoum issued a statement expressing our concerns and highlighting that such actions undermine the President of Sudan’s initiative for a National Dialogue. We have made clear that the process for National Dialogue needs to be inclusive and this can only be achieved if senior political and community figures are able to speak freely.