Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

David Rutley Excerpts

Friday 2nd December 2022 Ministerial Corrections

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

The Minister says that we are trying to understand what is going on and that Saudi Arabia is committed to reform. It is pretty clear what is going on: Mr al-Kheir was hung upside down and beaten on his hands, his stomach, his head and his face in order to extract a confession for which he is now at risk of execution. The Minister also knows that we have repeatedly heard how the Saudi authorities use torture in order to prove guilt. I have a very simple question that does not require the Minister to understand further what is going on: do the Government accept that Saudi Arabia uses torture, as all the international non-governmental organisations that have reported on the matter have said? If so, what do they propose to say about that?

[David Rutley]

We have already expressed our concerns, particularly about Mr al-Kheir’s case, in which clearly torture was used. We find that abhorrent. We have raised that issue at the highest level and will continue to do so, not just in his case but in other cases in which that might be happening as well.

[Official Report, 28 November 2022, Vol. 723, c. 673.]

Letter of correction from the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, the hon. Member for Macclesfield (David Rutley):

An error has been identified in my response to the right hon. Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn).

The correct response should have been:

[David Rutley]

We have already expressed our concerns, particularly about Mr al-Kheir’s case, in which torture has been alleged. We have raised that issue at the highest levels and will continue to do so, not just in his case but in other cases in which that might be happening as well.