The Lord Bishop of Coventry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of Coventry on 2016-07-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Saudi Arabia about the use of the death penalty against minors.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The UK opposes the death penalty in all circumstances and in every country, especially for crimes other than the most serious and for juveniles, in line with the minimum standards set out in the EU Guidelines on the Death Penalty of 2008 and the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Arab Charter on Human Rights.

We continue to raise the cases of Ali Al-Nimr, Dawood Al-Marhoon and Adullah Al-Zaher with the Saudi authorities at the highest levels, including during the former Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond)’s most recent visit to Saudi Arabia on 29 May. We expect that Ali Al-Nimr and the two others who were convicted as juveniles will not be executed.